Hollingwood Colliery Fire & Explosion – Chesterfield – 1857

HOLLINGWOOD. Chesterfield, Derbyshire. 15th. November, 1857.

The colliery was owned by Mr. R. Barrow and twelve men and boys were suffocated by the smoke from a fire in the mine. The coal was won by two engine planes 1,200 yards long and being liable to sudden outbursts of gas, was worked with locked safety lamps. There was a cabin at the foot on the back engine plane to clean the lamps.

On the morning of Sunday 15th November at about five o’clock, the horse keeper noticed smoke coming from the lamp cabin. He went to find Mr. Alexander Scott, the overman of the colliery and with his son and his brother, Robert, and others, went down and found that the cabin was burning fiercely.

Robert Scott and others went down the back plane and got within sixty yards of the fire and found that smoke was making its way rapidly up the back plane. Robert left to try and get a fire engine down the pit to throw water on the fire while his brother Alexander and others went down the front plane where he met Mr. Cooper, the under-viewer of the pit, who was with is brother who was visiting. This made a party of twelve people at the bottom of the plane.

The smoke from the fire rolled up the front plane and overcame these men. Some had run 400 yards before they were overcome and fell from the effects of the smoke.

The Inspector, Mr. Hedley, reported:

We could only recover eight bodies the other four. Thomas Scott, John Fowkes, Job Richardson and John Corns could not be found where it was possible to get. Mr. Woodhouse and myself went to the foot of the front plane after stoppings had been put in at Nos.3 and 4 doors to dam out the smoke, when we found the fire raging, the roof falling from the effects of heat and steam and the levels filled with gas and chokedamp, so that it was not safe to risk life in searching for the missing bodies.

 The air was excluded from the fire as soon as possible and a dam built across the front plane and when the smoke dispersed another was built across the back plane. These remained closed until 27th January when the dam in the back plane was opened. It was assumed that the air door in the back plane was closed and the air would pass along the stalls and not towards the fire. The dam was left open until the 30th and when no indications of smoke were found in the return air, the hole was enlarged and Mr. Woodhouse, the consulting engineer of the colliery, Mr. Seymour, the resident viewer and Mr. Hedley went down the plane towards the seat of the fire which they found was out.

When they came to the air door on the back plane which was thought would be closed, it was found to be open they found that Mr. Cooper had taken precautions to try to stop the smoke. One of the doors, the top one, was propped open with props and the other with coals which had fallen due to the heat and had allowed both the doors to close. The Inspector was surprised at the time of the accident, that Mr. Cooper had not made a stopping across the back plane before the smoke reached the No.3 doors. He appeared to have set the doors open when an unfortunate accident closed them.

After the mine was thoroughly examined, it was decided to open it out on 1st February. This was done and all the men in the pit were ordered out. Half an hour later a very great explosion occurred. This was evidence that the fire was still raging and in order to extinguish it, water was run into the mine. This extinguished the fire. There is no record if the remaining bodies were recovered

There is some confusion as to the victims. The appendix to the 1857 Inspectors Report, the following are listed as victims but those that are mentioned above as not being recovered, Thomas Scott, John Fowkes, Job Richardson and John Corns are not on the list. The Inspector records the number of deaths as twelve but it appears that sixteen was the correct number.

• Mr. James Cooper, visitor to the pit aged 22 years.
• Mr. D. Cooper, undermanager aged 30 years.
• Alexander Scott, overman aged 43 years.
• Thomas Watson, miner aged 40 years.
• Joel Walters, deputy aged 56 years.
• George Wagstaff, miner aged 34 years.
• William Chapman, miner aged 64 years.
• William Trueman, aged 37 years miner.
• Richard Foulkes, horse keeper aged 33 years.
• George Trueman, lamp keeper aged 33 years.
• Thomas Swift, road repairer aged 16 years.
• James Corn, miner aged 33 years.

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report, 1857. Mr. Hedley.

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