BRANCEPETH. “A” Pit. Willington, Durham. 13th. April, 1896.

The village lies between Bishop Auckland and Durham and the pit has been working for about fifty-six years before the disaster. The colliery was owned by Messrs. Straker and Love and was one of a group of seven pits belonging to the firm at Willington, Sunnybrow, Oakenshaw and Brandon. The pit had been sunk about 1850 to a depth 240 feet and the Brockwell, the Jet and the “B” or Seggar seams were worked at the colliery and a few weeks before the disaster, work in the Hutton seam had been discontinued. The explosion occurred at about 10 p.m. in the “A” Pit which was- “So destructive of life and property that it will henceforth be a landmark in the history of Willington.”

The pit employed over 300 men and boys of whom about 30 worked on the night shift. The foreshift deputies went down about 3 a.m. and the ninety-one foreshift hewers went down at 4 a.m. The putters, drivers, waggonmen and workers went down at 6 a.m. at 9.50 a.m. the backshift hewers went down to relieve the foreshift hewers who came to the surface at 11 am. At 4 p.m. the nightshift men, two hewers who were employed in the Seggar Seam, putters, drivers, water leaders, stonemen and shifters descended. At 9.30 p.m. the backshift hewers, 200 in number, relieved their mates who ascended at 10.30 p.m. The nightshift men repaired the mine and made it fit for the next shift and they came up at 12 p.m. The explosion occurred at 10 p.m. when there was the least number of people in the mine.

The colliery was managed by Mr. R.L. Weeks who was an agent for the Company. He had been in the post for thirteen years and had been instrumental in bringing in improvements to the working of the mine was held in high regard by everyone. He was described as “every inch a gentleman” The acting manager at the colliery was Mr. Grieves who also had charge of the “C” pit and the “B” pit at Oakenshaw. Joseph Dowson was the foreshift overman and Thomas Laws the overman on the backshift. Mr. Laws’ son was one of the last to be recovered from the mine and all the time he worked with the rescue workers.

At the time of the explosion, John Mould was the brakesman. He lowered the men into the mine at 9.30 p.m. and ten minutes after, while waiting for the signal to draw some men out of the pit, he saw that all was not right. There was no loud report but Mould was an intelligent man and heard a low peculiar noise. The time was 9.40 p.m. At first, he thought it was something to do with the boilers and went to investigate. The boiler attendant was not there so he blew the whistle to let him know that he was required and went up the pit heap. When he walked on the flat sheets he found that his footsteps were muffled by a layer of dust two to three inches thick and when he looked to the pit mouth he saw a cloud of dust rising. It then dawned on him that there had been an explosion underground.

When the boilerman came, Mould sent him to Mr. Dowson, the overman, and Dowson and Mould looked down the shaft. The lights that were usually seen at the bottom were out. Mould tried to signal down the shaft with the rapper. There was no reply and Mould ran the cage up and down the shaft to make sure that all was in working order. All was in order and the overman got into the cage and was lowered to the bottom. Shortly after Thomas Laws came and he went down the pit. George Wilson, the rapperman at the bottom of the shaft, was brought alive to the surface. His head was bleeding and he was very dazed. Mr. Grieves, Mr. R.L. Weeks and John Rutherford, the engineer came to the scene. A rescue party under the charge of Mr. Weeks went down the pit and went down the pit.

At the pit head, hundreds of people gathered and a solemn silence was over the crowd who waited patiently for the news that the rescue party would give them when they returned to the surface. The work of rescue was extremely difficult and hazardous. Nearly all the timber in the pit had been blown out and there were many large falls which blocked the way of the men and the ventilation in the mine. Mr. Weeks and others went down the Oakenshaw pit and opened the connecting doors and at once found that the atmosphere was full of afterdamp and they were forced to retreat. Mr. John Wilson, M.P. was in the rescue party and he discovered several of the victims. The treasurer of the Durham Miners Association, Mr. J. Johnson, was in a party with Mr. Gilchrist of Brandon who had a narrow escape when he crawled over a fall and fell over the other side. He became unconscious after breathing the afterdamp and was attended to be Dr. R.E. Brown and taken home very ill. All the bodies were eventually recovered.

Those who lost their lives were:

  • Joseph Forster aged 40 years, a waggon way man who was single,
  • Ralph Lawson aged 60, deputy, married with a grown up family,
  • John Rogerson aged 66 years, master shifter, married with a grown up family,
  • Thomas Moses Nicholson aged 20 years, stoneman, married,
  • John Dowson aged 20 years, stoneman,
  • William Cooke aged 52 years, stoneman, married with a grown up family,
  • Henry Hodgson aged 32 years, stoneman, single,
  • Thomas Carlon aged 14 years, driver,
  • Bert Newall aged 15 years, driver,
  • Joseph Brigham aged 22 years, shifter, single,
  • Michael Turner aged 50 years, shifter, married with ten children,
  • John Jefferson aged 58 years, shifter, married with a grown up family,
  • Richard Ranson aged 15 years, pumper,
  • John Wearmouth aged 54 years, shifter, married with a grown up family,
  • George W. Lauder who was also known as Rutherford aged 39 years, stoneman, married with five children,
  • William Laws aged 21 years, stoneman,
  • Tristram Spence aged 31 years, stoneman,
  • Charles Linton aged 34 years, stoneman, married with six children and
  • William Rawlings aged 50 years, stoneman, married with a grown up family.

Six others escaped with their lives. Of the thirty horses and ponies that were in the mine, 22 were lost and the task of bringing the dead animals to the surface was arduous and unpleasant. They had been dead for several days and putrefaction had set in. They were buried in a trench. While the work was going on, a Police sergeant noticed a lad with a sad look on his face at the pithead. The boy looked at the dead horse and said, “That was my Galloway. The best I ever drove, the best in the pit.”

The Inspector Mr. Bain, commented that:

The explosion was undoubtedly caused by firing a shot in the main engine plane and the management have now prohibited shot firing entirely on the main roads and are introducing the use of higher explosives for use in the caunches and drawing roads.

Roberite was the explosive that was selected. The Inspector went on to say:

A considerable amount of gunpowder is still, however, being used in the coal and roadways and some of the seams connected with these collieries, but I hope to see the quantity again reduced before long.

Whatever his politics may be the average working miner is very conservative in matters which affect his work, and a change from gunpowder, to which he has been accustomed for years to an explosive, which had somewhat different characteristics and to which he is a stranger, is sure to be met with a certain amount of disfavour.

A little difficulty is experienced at first before the relative proportions of the different explosives to be used to do the same amount of work is thoroughly understood, the tendency is to use more of the higher explosive than is necessary, but when this had been mastered the higher explosives do their work well, and it is only reasonable that both owners and men should yield something in exchange for the greater safety there undoubtedly in the higher compounds that with gunpowder in mines which are dusty or which give off inflammable gas.

A local paper commented:

The disaster cast a gloom over the county but at the same time, it gave another proof, if one were needed, of the fact that the hours of trial and difficulty as by noble heroism can be displayed by Durham Englishmen as by any soldier on the field of battle.

 

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report.
Reports to the Right Honourable The Secretary of State for the Home Department on the Explosion at the Brancepeth Colliery in the County of Durham on the 13th April 1896 by J. Edmondson Joel, Esq., Barrister at Law and by R.. Donald Bain, Esq., Her Majesty’s Inspector of Mines.
Crook Circuit Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. No.5. May 1869.
The Colliery Guardian, 17th April 1895, p.739, 1st May, p.844, 15th May, p.927, 22nd May, p.985.

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

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