Felling Colliery Tyne Main Pit Explosion – Felling – 1847

FELLING. Tyne Main Pit. Felling, Durham. 22nd. June, 1847.

The colliery was owned by Messrs. Carr and Co. and the explosion occurred at night when there were very few in the pit and it claimed the lives of four men and two boys and severely injured three others. Eighteen horses and two ponies were also killed but two ponies escaped. Three out of the six who died were killed by the afterdamp and the others by concussion. The gas was supposed to have been generated in a flue of an underground boiler and been ignited by the ventilation fire. This was the view that was put forward at the inquest by T.E. Foster, the viewer at the colliery. The explosion set the coal on fire.

Shortly after the blast Thomas Bales, the underviewer, accompanied by the banksman, descended the shaft and found one man unhurt at the bottom. On going into the workings they found some alive but very badly burnt and the dead in a very mangled state. The bodies were brought to the surface during the night.

Those who died were:

• Edward Taylor, hewer, left a widow and four children.
• James Collins, furnaceman, an old man.
• John Chapman, hewer, left a wife.
• Martin Greener, hewer aged 20 years.
• John Gibbon, boy.
• John Simpson, boy.

At the inquest. James Gladstone stated that they were waiting for a shot to fire when “the fire came upon them” and burnt him and killed Greener who had a candle. There was not gar there and plenty of air and he could not tell whether the shot or the gas-fired first.

Thomas E. Foster the colliery viewer gave a detailed description of the pit. He said:

The diameter of the John Pit is eight feet, depth to the Low Main Seam where she fired 102 fathoms. The William Pit is the upcast, 550 yards from the John, is eight feet in diameter and 116 fathoms deep. There were 60.000 cubic feet of air per minute descending. It went south for 300 yards to the Old Engine Bank and then one third went down the Engine Bank, the other two-thirds continued south passing the New Engine, 600 yards from the downcast. It then went down the slope Drift (where Greener was at work) to the Seam 16 fathoms lower, being depressed by a dyke and 18 on the other side. The east air ventilated the workings in the East District (about 60 acres) and then the greatest portion ascended by a return staple, 300 yards east of the five-quarter staple ventilation about eighteen acres and then proceeded to the furnace. A smaller portion ascended the five-quarter staple with the west air. The first 20,000 feet of air went down the Old Engine Bank and then the greatest portion went north, though about twenty-eight acres, passed the John Pit on the north, and then mixed with the other air and proceeded to the upcast. The whole ventilated a waste of about 60 acres. A small portion passed by the side of the goaf and mixed with the return with the remainder to the east air. Near the upcast, the air travels about four of five feet per second. I the stone drift (where Greener was working) and which was six feet high by five and a half wide, it travelled about nine feet per second.

The Davy Lamps were all provided with a tin shield which I consider perfectly safe. Thomas Hebburn, the keeper, was always going around the pit to see that they were right. The fire had not reached the New Engine Bank, the greatest damage was at the New Engine. It ceased working on Tuesday about half-past four in the afternoon, and the explosion took place at half-past nine. It was used for drawing coals up the New Engine Bank, caused by a dyke. The engineman put a quantity of coals on the fire to prepare for working about half-past two in the morning. The fire was smothered and the damper shut to within two inches to prevent draft. It is my opinion that the gas accumulated under the boiler, from the coals put on the fire and had been ignited by the flame of the fire when it kindled up and then exploded. The boiler was lifted at the further end from the fire and two of the metal knees on which it hung were broken.

 The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death” and recommended that steps should be taken to prevent a similar occurrence.

REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway. Vol.2, p.52.
Mining Journal. Vol. x, vii p.300, 310.
Latimer’s Local records. p.233.
The Report, 1849. p. 279, 283.
The Third Report, 1853. Append. 2.
An authentic copy of the evidence taken on the investigation into the nature and causes of the recent Hetton Colliery Explosion by Thomas Maynard, the presiding coroner. George Walker, publisher, Durham, 1861.

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