List of mining disasters in Lancashire

Monument to the Pretoria Pit disaster in which 344 men died in 1910

This is a list of mining accidents in the historic county of Lancashire at which five or more people were killed. Mining deaths have occurred wherever coal has been mined across the Lancashire Coalfield. The earliest deaths were recorded in parish registers. Ffrancis Taylior was buried at the Collegiate Church in Manchester after a fall in the "coale pitte" in 1622 and in 1661 or 1662, Thomas Hilton was "slain" at Bradford coal pit as was Thos Greene in 1664. Coal pit related deaths appear in the registers of Wigan Parish Church from the 1670s.^[1] In 1779 three "Poor Coaliers" were reported as being injured when the roof collapsed in a coal pit at Alkrington so that "their lives were dispared of..."^[1]

When the coal industry developed rapidly inthe 19th century, labour and life were cheap. Men, women and children perished in explosions, roof falls, floods and haulage accidents.^[2] Most fatalities were caused by firedamp, some caused by the miners who took the tops off the safety lamps that were designed to protect them because of the poor light they gave out. Some mineowners turned a blind eye to the use of candles in even the gassiest coal seams.^[3]

To regulate working conditions, the government passed Acts of Parliament: the 1842 Act prohibited the employment of females and boys under 10 years old and appointed a single inspector, but inspections were few and breaches were common. Acts passed in subsequent years led to the appointment of more inspectors and increased their powers to regulate how mines were operated and the working conditions and welfare of the miners.^[4]

1830s

• An explosion at Pemberton Colliery^[5] on 24 April 1830 killed nine workers.^[1]

• An explosion at one of the coal pits in Haydock in May 1831 killed up to twelve workers and in May 1832 another explosion killed another six.^[1]

• A disaster occurred at Ladyshore Colliery in Little Lever, Bolton on 10 July 1835 when ten men and seven boys were drowned after water from the River Croal inundated the pit workings. The colliery was situated on both sides of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal near where the Croal meets the River Irwell.^[1][6]

1840s

• Burgh Colliery was one of numerous pits and shafts that were collectively known as Coppull Collieries. On 24 November 1846, four years after the Mines and Collieries Act 1842 had passed into law, three of the nine victims of an explosion were girls.^[7] A collier lit a candle in the workings before the fireman had inspected them causing accumulated gas to explode.^[8]

1850s

• At Fletcher's Gibfield Colliery in Atherton on 11 February 1850, the workers descended and discovered the presence of gas which they tried to disperse with their jackets. The gas fired at the flame of a lighted candle causing an explosion which killed five men and burned several others.^[9]

• On 16 March 1850^[10] at Haydock Collieries Rock Pit, 13 men were killed in an explosion. Candles were in use in the pit even though the men had run away from a fire the day before.^[9]

• Town House Colliery at Great Marsden near Burnley was worked by Spenser Wilson and Co. On 12 April 1850, six men were working in the pit. One man went to check for gas with a safety lamp but before he signalled it was safe, another man removed the top from his lamp causing an explosion that killed them all.^[9]

• At Butterworth's Bent Grange Colliery^[11] in the centre of Oldham on 9 October 1850, an explosion killed 16 or 17 workers. The pit had a single shaft. About twenty five colliers were at work in the Riley mine (seam) when a roof fall broke the wire gauze of a Davy lamp causing an explosion.^[12][13]

• On 8 November 1850, about twenty men and boys and four ponies were working in Turner and Evans' No. 13 pit at Haydock when an explosion killed ten, injured several others and killed all the ponies. The men worked with candles and the pit was not routinely inspected for gas before work started.^[14]

• Heys Colliery in Ashton-under-Lyne was the property of John Kenworthy and Brothers. According to the inspector's report by Mr Dickinson, an explosion of firedamp on 17 March 1851 killed one man and injured eight more, five of them subsequently died from their injuries.^[15]

• On Monday 22 December 1851 shortly after a hundred men and boys descended into the 1,242 feet Deep Pit, at Ince Hall Colliery, an explosion caused by inflammable gas coming into contact with a candle killed 13 workers, the oldest was 65 years of age and the youngest were four boys aged 15.^[16][17]

• In very bad weather on 18 February 1852, water burst into the main level of Roscoe’s and Lords Colliery in Rochdale. The pit was 54 yards deep and the main drift 260 yards long. Some men near the shaft bottom managed to get into the cage and were drawn to the surface. Eight men were drowned in the rising water but two men and two boys in the upper workings ran until they reached the top of the drift but before the water reached them it subsided and they escaped.^[18]

• Norley Hall Colliery, 2½ miles west of Wigan,^[19] had shafts that ere 480 feet deep. An explosion in the Engine Pit on Friday night 24 April 1852, when most of the colliers had left the pit, claimed twelve lives, mostly boys aged 15 and under who worked as drawers.^[18]After the explosion all the workers were supplied with safety lamps.^[20]

• Coppull Hall Colliery was the property of John Hargreaves. It had two shafts but the small furnace for ventilation at the bottom of the upcast shaft was seldom used. A shaft sunk after the previous explosion to increase ventilation was 210 yards deep and 360 yards from the Coppull shaft. The colliery worked the fiery Arley mine (seam). The colliers and drawers had to provide their own safety lamps and some risked using candles. An explosion on 20 May, 1852 killed 36 men and boys, the oldest aged 41 and the youngest a boy of 9 whose father also died.^[21][22]

• The Ince Hall Coal and Cannel Company's Ince Hall Colliery worked the Arley mine (seam) at a depth of 414 yards It was one of a cluster of eight pits about one mile east of Wigan near the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Although it was a fiery seam, the coal was worked with naked lights and on 24 March 1853 an explosion killed fifty men and boys.^[23][24]

• Bent Grange Colliery in Oldham^[11] was owned by Thomas Butterworth who, after an explosion in October 1850, had been told by the inspector that the ventilation of the mine was defective. A second shaft was sunk but on 1 July 1853 another explosion killed 20 men and boys, 13 were suffocated by afterdamp and seven were burnt to death.^[25]

• Another explosion occurred at Ince Hall Colliery's Arley pits near Wigan on 18 February 1854. An explosion of firedamp in the same pit had occurred in the previous year and the recommendations of Her Majesty’s Inspector, Joseph Dickinson had been followed. Ventilation had been improved but the Arley mine (seam) was notoriously "fiery" and explosions had occurred in other pits where it was mined. The explosion cost 89 lives, 37 of the victims were burnt and the rest died from suffocation by the afterdamp.^[26]

• Bellfield Colliery in Rochdale^[27] was owned by John Knowles and Co. On 11 November 1854 three men and four boys were killed by falling down the shaft in the cage when a link in the coupling chain at the end of the shaft rope broke.^[28]

• An explosion of firedamp at Bardsley Colliery between Oldham and Ashton-under-Lyne on 2 February 1858, killed 53 men and boys from Bardsley and the nearby villages.^[29]

• An explosion of firedamp at Yew Tree Colliery in Tyldesley on 13 December 1858 killed 25 men and boys. It was the worst mining disaster to occur in the town.^[30]

1880s

• On 18 June 1885, an explosion in the Trencherbone mine at Andrew Knowles' Clifton Hall Colliery in Pendleton near Manchester killed 178 men and boys. A monument was erected in in St Augustine's churchyard in Pendlebury where 64 victims were buried. The explosion was probably caused by firedamp igniting on contact with a candle.^[31]

• The Bedford Colliery disaster occurred on Friday 13 August 1886 when an explosion of firedamp caused the death of 38 miners at Speakman's Bedford No.2 Pit, at Bedford in Leigh.^[32].

1900s

The Maypole Colliery disaster on 18 August 1908 was the result of an underground explosion at Maypole Colliery in Abram, near Wigan. The death toll was 76.^[33]

1910s

• The Pretoria Pit disaster occurred on 21 December 1910, when an underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery No. 3 Pit, known as the Pretoria Pit, in Over Hulton, Westhoughton killed 344 men.^[34][35]

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