Silverdale Colliery Explosion – Newcastle – 1872

SILVERDALE. Newcastle, Staffordshire. 21st. December, 1872.

The colliery was the property of Stanier and Company and was known as the Sheriff Pit. At the time of the explosion there were about 350 men working underground but the explosion was confined to the Bullhurst seam and eight men lost their lives.

On the morning of the disaster, three to four hundred men descended the No.6 it between 7 and 8 a.m. The gas fired at 8 a.m. and not one man from the immediate vicinity of the disaster escaped to tell his tale. The No.6 shaft belched stones and coals and carried away the fencing at the surface where workers had to run for their lives.

Mr. Lucas, the manager, and F.S. Sutton, mining engineer, John Downing, the underground bailiff, went down to find that the explosion had taken place in the Bullhurst seam, about 500 yards from the shaft and went in to explore the seam.

About twelve men who were working in nearby workings, heard the explosion and rushed to the pit eye, only to be overcome by afterdamp. They were rescued and attended to at the surface. The contemporary accounts say “they were restored by the aid of electricity and restored to conciseness”.

The bodies of Bainbridge, the head butty in the Bullhurst workings, and Amos Edwards were lying together in the far thurling. John Edwards another of the butties was found in the heading, twenty-six yards from another body and a lamp with the top removed was found near him. Twelve others were badly affected by the afterdamp and five were unconscious. By the following Monday, one hundred rescuers had removed many tons of rubbish and all the bodies had been recovered.

Those who died were:

• John Bainbridge, aged 49 years, head butty,
• John Edwards aged 54 years,
• Amos Edwards aged 19 years,
• William Powis aged 51 years,
• Thomas Mullineux aged 20 years,
• John Nicholas aged 35 years,
• James Brown aged 48 years,
• John Hall aged 30 years.

The inquest into the deaths of the men, was held before Mr. J. Booth, Coroner for North Staffordshire, at the Bush Inn, Silverdale. Mr. Thomas Wynne, the Inspector for the district was present and Mr. Udall represented Stanier and Company. Mr. Welch appeared for the friends and relatives of the dead.

John Moore, a collier at the pit who was in an exploring party headed by Mr. Lucas, the manager of the colliery gave evidence of the discovery of the bodies and Enoch Mould, butty collier, who had worked in the Bullhurst but not for some time. He assisted in getting John Hall out of the pit. There were several men working on the other side of the Bullhurst seam on the morning of the explosion, Powis, Mainwaring, Maddocks, Grundy and Cadagan and they escaped except Powis. The latter gave evidence at the inquest. On the morning of the disaster, the head butty had asked him if he wanted any more air pipes. He did not but he said that the butty always provided all the pipes they wanted and before a shot was fired, the permission of the butty was sought.

Dermot Fox, lamp cleaner, was in charge of the lamps at night. He said that Powis’s lamp had not been found and Bainbridge’s was found unlocked as was Amos Edward’s lamp which also had its top off. He knew that Powis had a lamp key because there had been a complaint from him that he had no oil in his lamp. Fox opened it and when he was relocking it Powis told him there was no oil in locking it as he would unlock it when he got down. Bainbridge and John Edwards also had lamp keys. Joseph Keene, the day lamp man said that since the explosion he had heard that other men had taken keys down with them.

James Lloyd, butty collier, said that on the morning of the explosion the air was “middling” and they had never been stopped from working because of gas. James Jennings, collier, was in the Bullhurst at the time of the disaster and said that the afterdamp was very string. He did not object to working in the mine with a naked light after a place had been tested for gas. He said that shots were not fired now in the Bullhurst but were still fired in some parts of the workings.

The evidence that turned to the expert witnesses and James Downing the assistant colliery manager said that shots in the Bullhurst seam had been prohibited since July and he considered the pit “as safe as it could be”. Orlando Lucas, also an assistant manager said that the ventilation was measured every month and the readings recorded. Mr. Greenwell a colliery viewer of Lord Vernon’s Collieries at Poynton thought that the colliery was in a “fit state”.

Mr. Wynne, in evidence, pointed out that there were two deaths at the colliery the previous July which had been attributed to blasting powder but he thought it was an explosion of firedamp. On that occasion, he had pointed out to Mr. Lucas and Mr. Udall in the colliery office that the seams could not be worked with the quantity of air that was passing. Mr. Lucas replied, “The Bullhurst was nearly driven to the far end and I would rather shut that up.”

This was agreed and the level was bricked up and if it was to be opened then there was to be consultation with the Inspector. This arrangement had not been carried out and three brows had been driven about 80 yards on the west side. Mr Wynne thought that the management was responsible for this and for the subsequent explosion. Mr. Lucas, when further questioned about this actions thought what he had down was right.

The Coroner summed up and hinted at the verdict of “Accidental Death” coupled with a censure of the management but the jury were unable to return a verdict and were “locked up” again. They consulted for five hours and were unable to agree a verdict. They were discharged and bound over to appear at the next Staffordshire Assizes.

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