GREAT BRIDGE, Friary Field. Dudley, Staffordshire. 26th June 1849.

The colliery was owned by Mr. Morris and the pit had not been working since the previous Saturday. The explosion took place on the following Tuesday when seventy men and boys descended with a butty who had a safety lamp. The pit was 274 yards deep with seven roads, seventy to eighty yards long and the explosion alarmed the neighbourhood. By 11 p.m. sixty-two men had been taken out of the pit but others were still in the mine and there was little hope that they were alive. Among the dead was the doggy who, it was said, had caused the explosion by unscrewing his lamp while the colliers were brushing out a place.

By 11 a.m. sixty-two men and boys had been rescued alive and eight bodies recovered. Among them was the body of Pritchard, the doggy.

The colliery was referred to a Friary Field of Moat Colliery. The Report for 1853 gives the number of dead as fifteen while the mining Almanac for 1850 says twenty-five were killed and forty-three injured.

Liverpool Mercury, 29th June 1849 – confirms 14 dead.

Daily News, 28th June 1849 – lists 13, but says others may die:

  • James Ball, a youth
  • Richard Bent, 18
  • Benjamin Cooper, 17
  • Sampson Fudge, left a wife and two children
  • John Gething, left a wife and seven children
  • John Harris, left a wife and nine children
  • Joseph Linneard, 19
  • William Moore, a youth
  • Thomas Perkes, 17
  • William Potts, 15
  • Thomas Prichard, Doggie, left a wife
  • Joseph Slimm, 13
  • Samuel Sticklebottom, 13

At the inquest into the disaster Elisha Hudson said:

On Tuesday last a little before 7 a.m. I held my lamp in the outside stall next to the fault. I found a good deal of sulphur and I said to Thomas Pritchard, “There is a good deal of sulphur,” and said he thought the spout was not too close and we both went back to the spout and found some air coming over the top of the dam. Pritchard unscrewed his lamp and lit a candle from it and went up to the dam. He had just turned to come away when the gas fired. He was about four or five feet from the spout.

 On Saturday, Jacob Smith had been ordered by Pritchard to make up the dam. At the time of the explosion some hands were a-brushing in the outside stall and I could find no sulphur there.

 

REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway. Vol.2, p. 101.
Mining Journal. Vol. xix, p.310, 328, 396.
Third Report, 1853. p.178.
Liverpool Mercury, 29th June 1849
Daily News, 28th June 1849

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

Return to previous page