East Hetton Colliery Inrush – East Hetton – 1897

EAST HETTON. East Hetton, Durham. 6th. May, 1897.

The colliery was the property of Walter Scott Limited and water entered the workings from the Cassop was of the Harvey Seam when the working of the Cassop Colliery was holed into. Ten men lost their lives. The accident occurred at 3.30 a.m. when only a few men were in the pit. Had it occurred on the day shift the loss of life would have been far greater?

The first intimation that anything was wrong was one of the chargemen noticing that some water coming out of the face of some longwall workings in the Harvey Seam about a mile north of the winding shaft. Steps were taken to warn the men who were in the workings at the time and it seemed probable that most of them would have got out if they had stated as soon as the warning came. As it was they stopped to put on their clothes but two men did manage to save themselves by keeping hold of the rope on the main haulage road and manager to get through the water even though it was up to their necks. The others appeared to have turned back on seeing the water and tried to come up another road but the water rose so rapidly that they were unable to get through.

On hearing of the accident Mr. Tate, the agent and Mr. Chipchase, the manager along with the overmen, deputies and several workmen quickly descended the pit. They found that the water was already three feet deep of the flat sheets and it was impossible to get into the workings. It was found that the water had gone down in the Old Cassop shaft which was a few hundred yards from the longwall workings in the East Hetton Colliery. It was known that the Five Quarter and the Main Coal seam had been worked at this colliery some years previously and it was decided to try to fill in the shaft and stop the inflow of water. To do this a large engine house that was nearby was blown down and the debris put in the shaft together with large quantities of lime, clay and anything else that was available. At the same time, water tanks and the pumping operations at East Hetton were kept running at full capacity and after a few hours the water level started to go down and that in the Cassop shaft stayed the same, indicating that the plugging operations had been successful.

Owing to the irregular gradient of the roads it was slow work getting the water down and operations were further slowed when gas was encountered and had to be dealt with at various points. The water had filled many of the roads to the roof and the ventilation had been interrupted. Every effort was made at great personal risk by the explorers which were made up of the staff of the colliery, mining engineers and managers from surrounding collieries and representatives of the workmen. It was hoped that there would be men that had survived but the slow rate at which the water was falling and the gas that was found did not leave the explorers with much hope of finding anyone alive but on the morning of the 10th, Mr. Chipchase heard something moving in the water and rushing in, found a man making his way out. It was the deputy, Wilson, who had been imprisoned since 3 a.m. on the 6th, a period of about 100 hours.

He had found himself hemmed in and had climbed on the woodwork supporting one of the horizontal sheaves connected with the haulage arrangements. The water reached about 3 feet deep underneath him and stayed there. This sheave was fixed on a piece of high ground, and although the water was as high as the roof on both sides of him, there was enough air coming through for him to breath. He was very weak from fatigue and lack of food but after medical care, he returned to work three months after the disaster as if nothing had happened. It seemed possible that he had either been unconscious or asleep for most of the time and he had lost track of time completely thinking that he had been in for only 24 hours. Wilson was indeed a lucky man as he had been the last person brought out alive after the Trimdon Grange explosion in 1882.

The first of the bodies were brought on the 12th and 5 more on the 13th, but it was until the 26th that the last was recovered from the mine. The Inspector, Mr. Bain, commenting on the rescue operations, said:

I cannot speak too highly of the energy and resourcefulness displayed by all classes of persons during a very anxious and dangerous time when everyone did his utmost, it would be invidious to mention anyone in particular. Mr. Tate, Mr. Chipchase and all the colliery staff and their workmen, as well as the neighbouring viewers, were constantly on the spot. Mr. Wilson, M.P., Mr. Johnson and other officials of the miners’ union took an active part in the exploration and Mr. Plummer, Mr. Walker and I were constantly at the mine.

Those who lost their lives were:

• John Garside aged 51 years, stoneman,
• Thomas Hutchinson aged 49 years, stoneman,
• William Hall aged 50 years, shifter,
• Matthew Robinson aged 26 years, shifter,
• Anthony Gibbon aged 41 years, shifter,
• Thomas Roney aged 58 years, shifter,
• Edward Smith aged 26 years, shifter,
• John Raine aged 63 years, waterman
• Edward Pearson aged 50 years, waterman,
• James Oliver aged 42 years, waterman.

The resumed inquest was held under the direction of Mr. Crofton Maynard, H.M. Coroner for the Easington Ward, in the National School Room at Kelloe on the 1st September 1897 and lasted for two full days. All interested parties were represented and it was apparent to everyone that the water had come from the Cassop Colliery, but for some time the absolute reason could only be conjecture.

There had been a great delay in reaching the point where the holing took place owing to the heavy falls which had taken place and there were many faults that crossed the road near the face. More than a thousand tubs of debris were removed and at last, on August 18th, the holing was reached and there was then no doubt where the water had come from. It was seen that a clean holing had been made into some old workings coming from the direction of the old Cassop shaft which was about 300 yards away.

Before starting to work this coal, the colliery company had made great efforts to get information about the old workings. Plans of the Five Quarter and Main Coal were found but there was no plan for the Harvey Seam and from various statements fro people who had worked there, it appeared that only a short distance of the seam had been driven into. Mr. Bell who was for many years the Inspector for the District had been connected with the Cassop Colliery 30 years before had a word with Mr. Tate before workings were commenced in the seam and drew a circle of radius 300 yards from the Cassop pit on a plan and said that if they were outside the circle then they would be safe and with taking the precaution of boring they might go a great deal nearer. A borehole was put in on the east side nearest Cassop to prove the position of a fault which according to the plans of the Main Coal and the Five Quarter was shown at this point, this borehole was not used to look for old workings and was not driven in accordance with the regulations as no danger was anticipated from water in old workings.

After a careful hearing and consultation for about an hour the jury returned the following verdict:

We find that Thomas Hutchinson and nine others accidentally lost their lives in the Harvey Seam at East Hetton Colliery by an accidental inrush of water from the old workings of the Harvey Seam at the Cassop colliery into the Harvey Seam at the East Hetton Colliery on the morning of the 6th day of May 1897. Further, we believe that Messrs. Chipchase and Tate did their best to find the plans of the workings of the old colliery and we believe that they used every precaution for the safe working of the East Hetton Colliery, and we think no blame was attached to one or either of them.

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report.
The Colliery Guardian, 7th May 1897, p.863, 20th August, p.337, 3rd September, p.425.

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