FATFIELD. Chester-le-Street, Durham. 27th. March, 1767.
The mine was 480 feet deep and an explosion claimed the lives of thirty nine people. The accident prompted the “Newcastle Journal” to write:
As so many deplorable accidents have happened in collieries, it certainly claims the attention of coal-owners to make a provision for the distressed widows and fatherless children occasioned by these mines, as the catastrophe from foul air becomes more common than ever yet, as we have been requested to take no particular notice of these things, which, in fact, could have very little good tendency, we drop the further mentioning of it but before we dismiss the subject, as a laudable example of their imitation, we recommend the provision made in the Trinity House for distressed seamen, seamen’s widows, &c., which, in every respect, is praiseworthy and confers honour on that brotherhood.
Sykes comments:
It is from such injunctions laid upon the newspaper editors, that these occurrences, for a great number of years, were kept as much as possible from the public.
REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway, vol.1, p.272.
Sykes Local Records, Vol. i, p.261.
Fynes. A History of the Northumberland and Durham Miners.
Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.
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