HEBBURN. Hebburn, Durham. 6th. May, 1852.

The downcast and upcast shafts were 12 feet in diameter. About 70,000 cubic feet per minute of ventilation air entered the downcast shaft and this was split six times. The quantity of air going to the area where the explosion took place was a little over 4,000 cubic feet per minute. The seam was five and a half feet high and all the places were bratticed with doors at the bord ends. The men worked with lamps but were allowed to open them to fire shots in the coal. The stoppings were well constructed and the air regulated by the stoppings in a such a way that there were no doors In the rolleyways which were 2,000 yards long.

Twenty-two persons lost their lives in the explosion when a single bord, 37 yards long, became fouled from a door being neglected. One boy was in charge of two doors. Most of the men were killed by afterdamp.

Those who lost their lives were:

  • John Barnfather aged 19 years, single.
  • Edward Johnson aged 18 years, single.
  • Samuel Wardle aged 18 years, single.
  • Michael Wardle aged 10 years.
  • James English aged 12 years.
  • John Gascoigne aged 34 years, single.
  • George Pattison aged 29 years.
  • John Pitchford aged 24 years, single.
  • James Coal aged 39 years married with a wife and daughter.
  • James Orr aged 33 years left a wife and three children.
  • William Deans aged 37 years left a wife and three children.
  • John Greenwell aged 30 years left a wife and three children.
  • William Scott aged 27 years left a wife and three children.
  • George Hall aged 27 years left a wife and three children.
  • John Smith aged 33 years left a wife and four children.
  • William Wear aged 32 years left a wife and four children.
  • Thomas Richardson aged ages 26 years left a wife and two children.
  • Silas Philipson, deputy aged 23 years left a wife and one child.
  • James Parson aged 22 years left a wife and one child.
  • John Peel aged 66 left a wife.
  • Allan Brooksbank aged 26 years. He had married a widow with three children three months before. She had been married four times and had lost the previous three husbands in colliery explosions.

 

REFERENCES
Inspectors Report, 1852.
Transactions of the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society. Vol 10, No.2.

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

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