SPRINGWELL. Gateshead, Durham. 29th. January, 1869.

The colliery was the property of J. Bowes and Partners. The colliery had been worked for a considerable number of years and worked the Hutton and the Low Main seams. The Low Main lay about ten fathoms above the Hutton which had been worked extensively and there were large goafs and portions of pillars left in this seam.

On the day before the accident John Peel, the resident viewer of the colliery was going to the Maudlin workings to inspect them when he met John Parkin, the underviewer coming from his rounds in the Low Main and Parkins told he had seen a crack in the floor in the south district but he could not detect any gas. Peel went to inspect the Maudlin seam workings and arranged to do the same for the Low Main workings the day after.

At the time of the accident which occurred about 2 a.m., the district was supervised by Thomas Aisbitt and he had just relieved Schorer the master shifter who told Aisbitt of a little gas and had told a hewer not to fire a shot. The hewer, Hugh McRae, was working in the place a short time before the disaster had been offered a lamp but had refused it and fired a shot afterwards.

The explosion occurred in the Low Main seam in which naked lights were used and shots fired. Below the point where the explosion is supposed to have occurred, there was a pillar of coal and the edge of the goaf in the Hutton seam which would make cracks in the floor so that gas from the Hutton seam could enter the Low Main workings.

Mr. Southern, the Inspector, went to the colliery as soon as he was told of the accident. He went down to the explosion area and found no traces of gas and he measured the ventilation current with Mr. Berkley of Marley Hill, the chief viewer of the colliery and Mr. Southern thought that there was sufficient ventilation to the upper seam as there were only seven working places but he had doubts about the ventilation of the lower seam.

Those who died were:

  • George Boggon aged 27 years, hewer,
  • John Coulson aged 55 years, hewer,
  • David Cain aged 46 years, hewer,
  • Thomas Aisbitt aged 31 years, deputy,
  • John Wind aged 20 years, hewer.

At the inquest, the jury brought in the following verdict:

That Daniel Cain had others were killed by an explosion of gas in Wynn’s bord in the Springwell Pit that the brattices should have been kept nearer the face that McRae was acting wrongly in not taking the advice of Schorer as to his candle and shot that Thomas Aisbitt ought to have had the flat laid off when informed there was gas and that it would be better if the rules of the colliery were known more generally among the workmen.

After the accident, the mine was worked exclusively with safety lamps.

 

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report 1869. Mr. Atkinson.

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

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