Lofthouse Colliery disaster
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The Lofthouse Colliery disaster took place in Lofthouse Gate, West Yorkshire in 1973
On March 21, 1973 miners at Lofthouse Colliery in Lofthouse Gate, West Yorkshire were working at a coal face which unknown to them was close to some 19th century mine workings which had become flooded. There was a sudden rush of water into the mine, most miners in the area fled to safety but it was discovered than seven men were missing. It was considered theoretically possible that they had made it to an air pocket. For six days strenuous and increasingly desperate efforts were made to reach them. At one point the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, visited the rescue operation. Eventually rescuers made it to the site of the accident, there was a small air pocket but nobody in it. Only one of the bodies was recovered.
The second part of the TV drama The Price of Coal was loosely based on the disaster.
[edit] Names of the dead
- Frederick William Armitage, 41, Face Worker
- Colin Barnaby, 36, Face Worker
- Frank Billingham, 48, Face Worker
- Sydney Brown, 36, Face Worker
- Charles Cotton, 49, Face Worker
- Edward Finnegan, 40, Deputy
- Alan Haigh, 30, Face Worker
