The Lofthouse Colliery disaster was a mining accident which took place in Lofthouse, West Yorkshire, England in 1973.[1] A new coalface was excavated too close to an abandoned, flooded 19th century mineshaft.[2] The sudden inrush of water trapped seven mine workers 750 feet (228.6 metres) below ground.[3] A six-day rescue operation was carried out but succeeded in recovering only one body.[4] The location of the flooded shaft was known to National Coal Board (NCB) surveyors but they had not believed it to be as deep as the modem workings. Existing British Geological Survey records indicated that the flooded shaft did descend to the same depth but these records had not been checked by the NCB.[5] The incident led to the Mines (Precautions Against Inrushes) Regulations 1978 ("PAIR"), requiring "examination of records held by the Natural Environment Research Council which might be relevant to proposed workings [and] diligent enquiry into other sources of information which may be available, eg from geological memoirs, archives, libraries and persons with knowledge of the area and its history."[6]
A seven-sided stone obelisk listing the names of the seven miners was erected in Wrenthorpe above the point where the miners were trapped. It is on the south side of Batley Road, opposite the junction with Wrenthorpe Lane (grid reference SE303221).