Ovingtons Pit Explosion – East Rainton – 1776

OVINGTON’S PIT, East Rainton, Durham. 7th. October, 1776.

This was an explosion in which five persons lost their lives. Michael Smurthwaite had prepared a charge in stone while sinking the pit.. He fastened a rope in the hole with the intention of running down a hot iron ring with which to detonate the charge. The ring was run down by William Wilson when it was considered safe. The charge exploded killed the two men and three others.

REFERENCES
The Walls End Miner or a Brief Memoir of the Life of William Crister by James Everett, 1868.

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