BRANDON. Brandon, Durham. 15th August, 1899.

The colliery was the property of Messrs. Strakers and Love and was worked with locked safety lamps and had not given off much explosive gas. The ventilation was good and the last recorded measurement, taken on 8th August showed a total of 64,931 cubic feet of air per minute in the Brockwell Seam in which the explosion took place. The blast caused the deaths of six men and injured four others

William Carr was the deputy overman in charge of the district. He had gone down the pit at 2.45 a.m. to make his statutory examination before the men went in and his report indicated that he had not found any gas. Whether he neglected to examine the inbye side of the shot hole before firing, or when the gas was forced out of the goaf by a fall or some other cause after the examination, will never be known but there was gas present. There wasn’t much dust in the district and the place where the shot was fired was damp and the stones left in front of the hole were wet to the touch.

Those who lost their lives were:

  • Enoch Griffiths aged 32 years, hewer,
  • Frank Murphy aged 20 years, putter,
  • William Carr aged 39 years, deputy. Died 14th August,
  • Ralph Broadbent aged 53 years, hewer. Died 16th August,
  • George Robson aged 18 years, putter. Died 17th August,
  • Frank Robson aged 22 years, putter. Died 18th August.

Those injured:

  • George Winter aged 44 years, hewer,
  • William Robson aged 45 years, hewer,
  • Robert Hunter aged 17 years, putter,
  • James Liddle aged 21 years, putter.

The inquest was opened by J.T. Proud, of Bishop Auckland when J. Strachan, Q, represented the owners, Mr. I. Isaacs, of Sunderland, the Miners Union and Mr. E. Bell the Deputies Union. Mr. John Wilson, MP, and Mr. Foreman and Mr. Cann were present on behalf of the men. There were several mining engineers present as well as the Government Inspectors.

On inspecting the area after the disaster, a shot hole was found in Broadbent’s working place which still had the stemming in, but when a pricker was inserted, no charge was found and the stone was hewed down by pick. The hole was found discoloured with powder and tasted of saltpetre. the hole was found to have been stemmed with small coal but clay was provided and taken into the working places so that this could be put down to carelessness by the man but it had no effect on the accident.

All the lamps were found locked with the exception of a broken glass in one of them which was probably caused by the explosion. William Carr, the deputy, was the only man in the district who was authorised to fire shots. He was found a considerable distance from the shot with the top of his lamp screwed on, but the lamp was not locked. This led to the suspicion that he had light the fuse and had time to retire to where he was found and had screwed the top on his lamp before the explosion took place.

When the old headway was examined on the inside of the shot, some gas was found. This came either from the goaf or form the leader of a fault and it was thought that the shot ignited gas that was lying in the old headway.

It was evident that the blast had originated in some broken pillar workings about a mile and half from the shaft in a district known as the Jubilee way. A considerable area was affected by flame and several props showed signs of charring but there was nothing to definitely indicate from which direction the blast had come.

After the full hearing the jury brought in the following verdict:

That Griffiths and Murphy came to their deaths by the force of the explosion and the others died from pneumonia contracted from the burns caused by the exploit the explosion having been caused by natural gas ignited from a flame passing from the shot hole into the old headways course, and that the explosion was purely accidental.

Roburite was substituted for compressed powder as the explosive that was used in the mine.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report.
The Colliery Guardian, 13th October 1899, p.694.

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

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