JARROW. Jarrow, Northumberland. 3rd. August, 1830.

The explosion which took place at 5.40 a.m. in the Bensham Seam, where there were seventy men working. There were 120 men and boys in the mine in total and of the seventy in the Bensham Seam, forty men and boys lost their lives. The cause was put down to a sudden outburst of gas and the area was lit by naked lights.

An account of the disaster was read by Mr. Buddle to the Natural History Society of Northumberland on the 18th of October. He said:

Though so fatal in its consequence, the range of the fire was not of very great extent. The hewer was working at the point where the burst took place was not burnt and no marks of the fire appeared for about eight yards back from the face where, at the end of the “stenting” or crossholing, the gas had become sufficiently mixed with air to render it explosive.

Mr. Buddle presented The Society a piece of charred coal dust which he had found deposited throughout the workings. He continued:

This dust flies in all directions like luminous sparks, similar to those discharged through the chimney of an engine, which is consequently propelled by the force of the explosion at a considerable distance beyond where the flame was the ignited gas advances. They scorch and wound those who may happen to be within their reach and frequently set fire at any combustible substance they might fall upon, sometimes the coal itself.

Of the fifty-two victims, twenty were married men and left widows and sixty children fatherless. A Subscription Fund was set up for the families which amounted to over £900.

 

REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway, Vol.1, p.498.
Sketches of the Coal Mines in Northumberland and Durham. T.H. Hair.
Sykes’ Local Records.
Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland. Vol.i, p.184.
Durham Advertiser.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.

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