Renishaw Park Colliery Explosion – Chesterfield – 1871

RENISHAW PARK. Chesterfield, Derbyshire, 10th. January, 1871.

The colliery was owned by Messrs. J. and G. Wells and was known as the Nos.1 and 2 Silkstone Pit. They were in the Parish of Eckington. There had been an explosion at the colliery in 1865 and Mr. Evans, H.M. Inspector, had pointed out that the system of ventilation required alteration. He was also critical of the discipline of the men at the mine at the time.

There were two shafts both sunk to the Blackshale Coal. The one to the lowest level was the downcast shaft and the upcast was about 600 yards to the rise of this. The No.2 Pit had been worked for about ten years. For two years before this, the lower pit had been ventilated by brattice and the system was altered in 1863. The air was split at the bottom of the downcast shaft, some going to the north workings and some to the south workings which passed along the level of the boundary, up the furthest gateroad to the working faces to the north side of the upcast shaft, into the low level of the No.2 Pit, southwards along the low level, to the boundary again and up the furthest gateroad to the face. It then went back along these faces to a point opposite the upcast shaft.

The coal was about three feet thick at the working places and the explosion occurred on the south side. Mr. Evans, the Inspector, commented in his report:

If the ventilation of the colliery had been properly distributed a large proportion of the twenty-six lives would have been spared, even if an explosion had taken place.

The mine was worked with locked lamps and there were two lampmen, William Keeton and John Brunt. Keeton was on duty on the evening of the explosion and it was his job to lock the lamps before they were taken below ground. Each man who fired shots was provided with two lamps, a Clanny glass lamp and a Davy lamp, The men were provided with Clanny lamps. Joseph Hardwicke and Francis Clarke had lamp keys if the men’s lamps went out, they could go to the bottom of the shaft where the deputies would re-light them.

On the evening of the 10th January, some men were engaged in the intake airway of the No.1 Pit. They were blasting down the roof to make the road high enough for the horses to get into the workings. There were other men in different parts of the Nos. 1 and 2 pits, repairing roads and getting coal. Francis Clarke. One of the victims of the disaster was the night deputy and Thomas Hardwicke was the day deputy in the part of the mine affected by the blast. Thomas Hutchby was the night deputy and John Hardwicke, the day deputy of the south side. About 400 men worked in the colliery during the day and 77 at night.

Thomas Scott was in the party getting down the roof and he gave an eyewitness account of the events in the mine at the time of the disaster:

There would be twenty to twenty-eight men on the south side of the pit and 9 or 10 on the north side of No.1. Some were tramming, others were doing repairs and others ripping. i had men working in No.9 south. The men working at the No.4 gate were not mine. I saw Francis Clarke just before the explosion. He was in No.12 benk with me at the west end of the No.1 Pit. He followed me to there and told me he would go to the far end of the south side, to the benk faces, to see some men working there. I came down towards the pit bottom. There was regular rush of smoke as hot as fire, black smoke and dust. The men came rushing on out of the deep workings and I went to the south level to No.3 gateway. I came back to the bottom and tried to shut the doors but they were blown out. I went round al the workings on that side before the explosion. Francis Clarke and a boy came with me. They were boring a hole near No.4 gateway. Martin and others. I went up to the end of the level. There was a shot fired that time of the explosion. Clarke, the boy and myself got there about half-past six. The next time I got there was after the explosion. I didn’t hear the shot go, so I suppose the explosion of powder occurred at the same time or just before the explosion of gas. I only heard the shock.

After the explosion, the others wanted to go but I stopped them ringing any more up. I went to the north side of the jenny and the doors were blown open. I then came back to the pit bottom and went along the south level. After, I went into No.3 passway and came back again. There was a little bit of stuff down. I waited for assistance. Joseph Hardwicke, John Smith and others went with me to gate No.3 to prop the doors open. We reared some doors at the bottom of the gate to turn the ventilation forward. We went a little further into the No.3 gate and we saw Thomas Goodwin just on the top side of the level. Samuel and Thomas Hardwicke then came down the shaft and I went with them to the south level again to the bottom of the No.7 gate. Meanwhile, Goodwin had been removed to the top of the No.1 Pit. We could get no further because of the afterdamp. We came back to the bottom and got some straw and clothes to make a stoppage at the bottom of each gate road so that we could get on. We put in temporary stoppings and Thomas Hardwicke and I went to the end of the level and up the jenny. We found Portas near the top of the jenny. We found Billan near the drum. Mark Barber and Rhodes on the south level, David Wainwright on the side of a benk fence, John Ellis, “Irish Jack”, Webster and another man named Thomas, a little further off. we found a man I believe to be George Webster a little before I saw Goodwin. The latter was alive but the others were all dead. We found nine up the jenny at the bottom of the No.4 gate. I can’t say how many. When we saw they were dead, we left them for others to take out and went on.

The report says that there were twenty-six lives lost but lists twenty-seven. They were:

• Francis Clarke, deputy.
• John Allcock.
• Benjamin Martin a boy.
• William Wood.
• George Hall.
• George Lowe.
• Enoch Bridges
• Matthew Savage.
• William Laking.
• Robert Watson.
• John Bolsover aged 70 years.
• Samuel Portas.
• Ephraim Bellam.
• Mark Barker.
• John Edward Rhodes.
• Thomas Richardson.
• David Wainwright.
• William Webster.
• John Ellis.
• John Cutley.
• Thomas Goodwin.
• Henry Goldsworthy.
• Enoch Breeze.
• John Thorpe.
• Aaron Arthur.
• Thomas Pearce.
• Thomas Lloyd found alive in the No.8 gate but died later.

The disaster left nineteen widows, one hundred and fifty-one children and twelve others are destitute. Mr. Wells, the manager of the colliery gave £200 to the Relief Fund.

The inquest took place before Mr. C.S.B. Busby one of the Coroner for Derby. Mr. Joseph Wells, one of the proprietors of the colliery was the first to give evidence. He produced plans of the colliery and a copy of the Colliery Rules. He stated that these were not fiery pits but the rules that were in force were those for fiery mines. Mr. Wells said that the last been in the pit in November and could not remember when he had last visited the No.2 Pit. He left the underground management to Samuel Hardwicke, who was assisted by his brother who was a deputy and also kept The Rose and Crown public house not far from the colliery. A man named William Barker stated that he did not go to work the night of the disaster because he was not well and admitted that he had been drinking in the Rose and Crown.

Hardwicke lived at the colliery and state that he had a duty to the Nos., 1 and 2 Pits but could not give ventilation measurements to the court when it appeared to be his duty to do so. He told the court that his duties were to see the workings were in a proper state and did not have full control of the airways of the pit and that Joseph Wells was responsible for driving the airways.

Hardwicke told the court that there was no record Book at the colliery. Francis Clarke made the report on the state of the workings at night and Thomas Hardwicke, the day fireman on those in the day when the day foreman met the night fireman met of the engine road but there was only verbal communication. Nothing was written down, the Coroner commented:

There appears to have been a neglect of one of the principal rules of the colliery. Gas might have accumulated without Samuel Hardwicke knowing of it and it appears to me that Hardwicke was responsible.

Hardwicke thought the explosion had taken place about twenty yards from the bottom of the No.4 gate where a shot had been fired. The damage extended 108 yards towards the No.3 gate and 670 yards the other way. He thought the gas had accumulated behind some timber in the roof which was covered with slabs. The shot would have disturbed the timber and the powder fired the gas.

William Keeton, the lampman at the No.1 Pit who lived at Marsden Moor, said he gave out 70 lamps on the night of the disaster. There were about a dozen Davy lamps and the rest were Clanny’s. They were all locked and cleaned. Not all the lamps were recovered but of those that had, some were badly damaged. There was no record of which men had which lamps s they were not numbered. Henry Cutts, a miner from Eckington, went into the pit after the explosion and found Bolsover’s body at the far end of the horse level. He was lying on his side with his head against an old wall, part of which had fallen on him. His lamp was a yard from him, broken in two pieces. Cutts could not remember if it was locked.

Thomas Scott, collier of Mosborough, was ripping the roof in the No.1 pit at the time of the disaster. The work was sometimes done by blasting and sometimes by wedging the rock down. He said the charges were fired by the chargeman getting a wire red hot through the gauze of his lamp when he would put it to the fuse. Benjamin Martin was the chargeman. Scott was with John Tindale when they felt the shock of the explosion about 10.40. They heard no noise but felt drumming in their ears.

Evidence was then taken from the expert witnesses who had been called in by the colliery management for their comments after the explosion. The first was Thomas Emerson Bainbridge, coal owner and mining engineer of Sheffield. From his inspection, he concluded that the explosion was very slight and was surprised that there were so many deaths in the No.2 pit which was 2,000 yards from the suite of the explosion. he thought the blast from the shot, which he thought was too strong, was enough to fire the gas at a lamp. He could not say where the gas came from but on the ventilation he commented:

Assuming the explosion to have taken place in the jenny gate and a direct current of air sent into the No.2 pit from the downcast shaft, I think there would be a probability of the lives of some of the men being saved.

 Charles Edward Appelby, a coal owner of Barborough also made an inspection after the event and he agreed with Bainbridge that the cause of the disaster was gas fired by a shot. P. Cooper, who lived at Holmes near Rotherham and was a manager for the Masborough and Holmes Coal Company thought the gas had come from above the timber and would not always be detected in a mine where gas was constantly being given off.

Mr. Earl, the colliery surveyor and agent gave evidence of the ventilation measurements and then Mr. Thomas Evans, the Inspector, gave his comments on the events. He considered the quantity of ventilation air too small and not well distributed. He went on:

The No.2 pit should have had a distinct split of air taken straight to the bottom of the downcast shaft and this should have been split again on reaching the No.2 pit workings. Had this been the case, the explosion in No. 1 could not have affected the men in the No.2 pit workings, whereas, as it was, many were suffocated. The most simple principles of ventilation do not appear to have been understood, or if understood carried out.

The discipline in the pit is most lax gas might be given off without the underviewer knowing anything of it and the manager, Joseph Wells, seldom goes into the colliery.

I agree with Mr. Cooper and the other gentlemen that there was not a very large quantity of gas, but still, it was a sharp explosion and if the air had been split, the unfortunate men in the upper pit some two thousand yards from the point of the explosion, would have been saved.

The Coroner made a lengthy summing up and told the jury that the main points to consider were the engineering and the discipline in the mine but unless they could show criminal negligence of the part of the colliery proprietors, the apportioning of blame was not for then to decide. He told them that it remained for them to decided if the men met their deaths through accidental explosion of gas in the mine or not.

The jury retired for a quarter of an hour and returned the following verdict through Mr. Rotherham, the foreman:

It is our unanimous opinion that the deaths were accidental but at the same time we recommend that stricter supervision should be exercised by the underviewers.

The Coroner closed the proceedings with the following remark:

I think it is unfortunate that a deputy of a colliery should keep a public house. It leads both him and the men into habits likely to create a laxity in the discipline of the colliery, which ought to be as strict as military discipline. I feel bound to take the opportunity of making such a remark.

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