Medomsley Colliery Shaft Accident – Consett – 1923

MEDOMSLEY. Consett, Durham. 24th. February, 1923.

The colliery was about two miles north of Consett and was owned by The Consett Iron Company, Limited. It had a shaft called the “Busty” shaft to the Brockwell Seam and it was in this shaft that eight persons lost their lives when ascending in the cage. The shaft was ten feet in diameter and lined with fireclay lumps except for 95 feet. The openings from the shaft were at 114 feet, to the Main Coal and 365 feet, to the Busty seams. The shaft was 453 feet deep.

As the cages ran in the shaft, there were guide rails constructed from steel rails in 18 feet lengths that weighted 41 pounds per yard, to keep them in vertical alignment. It was twenty years before that the original guides had been installed and these were in regular use until January 1921 when part of the North West guide had become severely worn and was renewed for seventy feet from the shaft bottom to the meeting, where the cages passed.

There was a problem with the materials that were to be used for the replacement. The Company could not get rails of exactly the same cross-section as the original rails. To make them fit at the joint the old rails were tapered down to make the joint.

The winding apparatus was a Ward Leonard Ilgner Type with a direct current motor rated at 350 horsepower which was completed in 1914. The drum was 10 feet in diameter and 6 feet wide. The ropes were of “Special Improved Plough Steel” three and a quarter inches in circumference, Lang’s lay, with a breaking strain of 408 tons. The “capel” or socket on each winding rope was a “Reliance” type and between it and the bridle chains, of which there were four, was a four-ton Ormerod Detaching Hook. The pulleys were 11 feet in diameter.

The North side winding rope was first used on 11th November 1922 and that on the Southside on the 30th. September 1922. The North cage was installed in October 1922 and the south cage a little before this date. The chains on the cage were annealed and installed in September 1922.

All the ropes, detaching hooks, cages and chains were inspected by the enginewright, Joseph Simpson and the leading blacksmith, John Wilson who also examined the cage shoes daily. The shaft, guides and buntons were examined and reported on nightly by the shaftsman, Timothy Collinson and were examined weekly by the enginewright. The examinations were made between 8 and 8.30 a.m. The weekly examination was made at weekends and took from three-quarters of an hour to an hour. The enginewright was always accompanied by a blacksmith or a shaftsman when he made his inspection. The guides were greased with thick black grease, at least once a week, by the shaftsman, usually during the Sunday night shift.

The last examination of the shaft and fittings before the accident was made by Timothy Collinson between 12.30 and 1.30 on the morning of Saturday 24th February and everything was found to be in good order. He recorded in his report book “All in working order”. The last examination of the cages shoes, chains, detaching hooks and winding ropes and their capels and sockets were made by Joseph Simpson and the blacksmith, Wilson between 8 and 8.30 a.m. on Friday 23rd. February. This examination found that all was on good order with the exception of two cages on the North West guide which was found to be worn. Simpson told Wilson that it would have to be changed on Saturday but his entry in his report book said, “In good order”. This point was taken up at the inquiry into the accident.

On the day of the accident, the hewers who worked on the back shift went down between 6 and 6.20 a.m. and after they had descended, coal was wound until 7.25 a.m. Nothing unusual took place during this time. The North cage was sent down with two empty tubs and the South cage was brought up empty.

Mr. J.W. Southern, the banksman at the colliery, signalled to the onsetter that it was time to bring up the foreshift men. The two foreshift onsetters and six youths who had been working at the shaft bottom siding got into the North cage, four on the top deck and four in the bottom. The bars at the two ends of each deck were put into position and the ill-fated wind began.

There was nothing in the descending cage and the men had no tools with them, nor had they any lights. The cage was wound to about 80 feet from the surface when the banksman heard a crash which he described by saying “bu-r-r-r-rup and lasting as long as it takes to say it.” The cage was ascending at about 15 to 18 feet per second, when he noticed a sudden shock, the engine partially stopped and the winding rope flew up. He had started to slow the engine and stopped it as quickly as he could. The end of the upcoming winding rope stopped level with the surface.

Mr. Joseph Simpson, the enginewright at the colliery was soon on the scene and he found a steel erector, Joseph Malpass, and some men including a blacksmith trying to put up a temporary headgear to go down the shaft. This was completed and bosuns chair was made. Mr. Simpson descended the shaft with the hauling engine rope used for winding. He went down 150 feet and found the ascending cage stuck fast in the shaft with no one in it.

He returned to the surface and Malpass went into the chair and descended to look at the cage. He returned, and took a chain down the shaft and secured the cage. He was lowered further and made an inspection as he went. He went as far as the Southside cage which he estimated was 30 feet from the shaft bottom. He then made measurements to see if the South cage would pass the broken cage in the shaft if it was wound up.

He returned to the surface and reported that he had been bodies on the top of the Southside cage, that there were broken pipes in the shaft and that a length of the North East guide rail was broken. The south side cage was then lowered to the bottom of the shaft and the bodies removed. They were taken to the surface by way of a travelling drift.

After the two pieces of broken pipe had been taken out of the shaft, the north side winding rope was attached to the damaged cage by Malpass and it was drawn to the surface

The onsetter at the bottom of the shaft, Mr. D. Marshall, thought the cage had been wound a good way up the shaft when he heard a bump and immediately he heard debris falling down the shaft.

Those who lost their lives were:

• Thomas Cant aged 48 years of Leadgate.
• James Horsnby aged 31 years of Consett.
• Thomas William Thorburn aged 16 years of Consett.
• Denis O’Neil aged 17 years of Consett.
• Clarence Pogue aged 17 years of Consett.
• Francis O’Hanlon aged 18 years of Consett.
• Thomas Anthony Cooper aged 16 years of Consett.
• James Smith aged 17 years.
• George Scarr was killed in the same pit on Thursday 22nd February.

The Coroner’s inquest took place on the 26th February and was conducted by Mr. John Graham who sat without a jury. He came to the verdict that:

The men were killed by falling out of the ascending cage, consequent upon the cage coming out of the guide rails following the breakage of one or more of the cage shoes.

The Inquiry into the disaster was opened at the Police Court in Consett on the 20th June by Mr. Henry Walker, C.B.E., H.M. Deputy Chief Inspector of Mines.

After an examination of the shaft after the accident, it was found that little had been broken or displaced and the damage that was done was confined to the Eastside. It was found that a bunton, the cast-iron girder which had been used to support a column of pipes, was fractured in the middle. At another bunton, a double-headed rail was fractured and bent downwards. Pipes carrying water to the stables were broken and dislodged and other rails were broken and bent.

The cage was badly damaged but the chains, although strained were not broken. The detaching hook had two outer plates broken across the jaws and it was the breaking of these jaws that allowed the cage to fall down the shaft. The winding rope had been drawn two inches out of the socket. A cage shoe had broken in half at the bolts, one was intact, another was not on the cage when it was brought to the surface. It was found later on the guide, in the sump and was undamaged.

The attention of the experts turned to the shoes. They showed wear and were examined at the National Physical Laboratory which were found to have been made from a bad casting which made them hard and brittle. The evidence to the inquiry was very technical and centred on the quality of the materials that the bolts and the guide shoes were made. The quality of the casting of the shoes was condemned by Dr. Rosehain of the National Physical Laboratory. Mr. Herron, of the Laboratory, said that the cage shoes became mixed up in stock and that it was impossible to say who had supplied them.

The enginewright, Joseph Simpson, had never rejected a shoe and the blacksmith consider that they were all good and he had never known one to break. With regard to the bolts, he had never known one to break or come out.

Mr. Henry Walker came to the following conclusions as to the cause of the accident:

1. The accident was due to the cage shoes on the north-west guide coming off that guide rail and allowing the ascending cage to turn out of its proper position in the shaft and so to come into contact with the cast-iron girder places north-south in the shaft at a depth from the surface of 80 feet.
2. The cage shoes in the north-west guide came off that guide consequent upon their having been allowed to remain in use too long.
3. The cage shoes on the north-west guide were allowed to remain in use too long because the method adopted by the enginewright to examine them was faulty in the respect that he could only roughly estimate the amount of wear on the point of the lugs, and he could not estimate, much less measure, the wear caused by the new section of the guide rail on the inside surface of the lugs.
4. That, to adverse conditions already existing in the north-west portion of the shaft, a further and more serious adverse condition was introduced by replacing part only of the north-west guide by a rail differing in a section from the section of the original guide.”

 There were several recommendations made after the inquiry and Mr. Kirkup welcomed the suggestions for the Consett Iron Company and said that they were most anxious at all times to do anything that would preserve the life and limbs of their employees and all the recommendations were acted upon by the Company.

REFERENCES
Colliery Guardian, 29th. June 1923, p.1658.

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