North Biddick Colliery Explosion – Biddick – 1743

NORTH BIDDICK. Biddick, Durham. 18th. January, 1743.

The pit was reported to have exploded with the loss of seventeen lives. The colliery was on the River Weir and some workmen were holing a drift which communicated with an old waste when the explosion occurred killing ten men and five boys. One or two escaped but later died from their injuries. Contemporary writers thought it was remarkable that although the drift was full of water, the gas still fired.

REFERENCES
Sykes Local Records.
Great Pit Disasters Great Britain. 1700 to the present day. Helen and Baron Duckham.
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway, Vol.1, p.253.
Newcastle Courant.

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