Wingate Grange Colliery Explosion – Wingate – 1906

WINGATE GRANGE. Wingate, Durham 14th. October, 1906.

The colliery was the property of the Wingate Grange Colliery Company which was owned by the executors of Mr. John Gully and the Estate administered by the Court of Chancery. Of the Trustees of the Estate only Mr. Molloy was living and he had never taken an active part in the administration of the colliery. It employed 1,200 men and boys in the various shifts and was near the edge of the northern Coal Field.

There were two shafts at the colliery, an upcast and a downcast each of fourteen and a half feet in diameter and five seams had been worked at the colliery. They were The Five Quarter seam at 74 fathoms, the Main Coal seam at 89 fathoms, the Low Main seam at 110 fathoms, the Hutton seam at 129 fathoms and the Harvey seam at 153 fathoms. Both shafts were sunk to the Harvey seam and the upcast about 4 fathoms below this seam.

The downcast was the Lady pit and was 44 yards to the north of the upcast shaft and it was sunk to the Harvey seam. The shaft was traversed by two pairs of cages running in wooden guides. One pair ran between the Harvey seam, and the surface and the other pair between the surface and the Hutton seam.

The downcast, the Lord Pit, was also sunk to the Harvey seam and continued further. It was only fitted with wire guide ropes to the Low Main seam. Immediately below this there were three scaffolds, the cages rested on the first, the second was used in connection with the wire guide ropes and the third was protecting scaffold. a little air ascended past these scaffolds. Both shafts were cased with cast iron tubbing through the limestone.

In addition to the main shafts, there were subsidiary shafts or staples between the seams, the most important of which were the staples between Main Coal and the Harvey seams, the staple between the Low Main and Harvey seams and the staple between the Low Main and Main Coal seams. twenty-five yards from the downcast a staple 10 feet in diameter between the Main Coal and Harvey seams acted as an upcast for the Harvey and Hutton seams as far as the Main Coal seam. At the top of this staple in the Main Coal seam was a winding steam engine. This staple was capable of being used in conjunction with a kibble or bucket, not running in guides, for the ascent and descent of men between any two of the four seams.

A staple between this one went from the Low Main and Harvey seams and had a steam winch to the Low Main seam to raise and lower men in a kibble between the seams. This staple was not used for ventilation and was called the “dumb staple”.

A staple between the Main Coal and the Low Main seams was about 110 yards north of the downcast shaft, by the side of the main haulage road. This was 10 feet in diameter and used to lower coal from the Five Quarter and Main Coal seams to the Low Main seam from where it was taken to the upcast shaft and raised to the surface. The Main Coal seam was not being worked at the time of the explosion and coal only from the Five Quarter seam was dropped down the staple. the coal was run down a self-acting incline in a stone drift between the Five Quarter and Main Coal seams and then led by horses along a road in the Main Coal for 380 yards to the top of the staple. The staple was fitted with a drum and two cages, each holding one tub. The cage and full tub raised the other cage and an empty tub.

Two ranges of steam pipes to supply the underground engines in the Low Main and Harvey seams, as well as a small pumping engine in the Harvey seam, entered the upcast shaft at the surface. The range for the Low Main left the upcast shaft at the Main Coal and was then continued down the staple to the Harvey seam as far as the Low Main seam. The range for the Harvey seam left the upcast shaft at the Main Coal seam and was then carried down the downcast shaft.

A range of pipes extended down the downcast shaft from the surface to the Hutton seam and supplied a pumping engine. A branch from this pipe supplied a pumping engine in the Main Coal which provided the village with water and also a winding engine at the top of the Harvey seam staple. Another pipe left this range at the Low Main seam and supplied a steam winch at the top of the dumb staple.

Considerable water feeders amounting to 650 gallons per minute were met in the upper seams and ran down staples to the Hutton seam and the water was forced to the surface by the pumping engine in that seam. This was the main pumping engine in the colliery.

Both seams were work on the longwall and bord and pillar system. the workings in the Five Quarter were extensive and the Main Coal had been worked over a large area but operations in this seam had been suspended for about two years. The Low Main was also worked over a large area. The Hutton had not been worked as extensively as the other seams and it had stood for forty years before operations started again about two years before the disaster. At the time the Harvey, which had been worked over a large area, gave the largest output.

Hauling engines were placed near the shafts in the Low Main and Harvey seams and an engine roof for a hauling engine in the Hutton seam was being prepared. The coal was taken from the various working faces by ponies, then by horses or self-acting inclines and finally by engine power on ropes on the main and tail rope system. The engine haulage roads were the intake roads in all cases. One hundred and seventy horses and ponies were in the nine on the day of the explosion.

There were four kinds of tubs used, iron ones carrying 8 to 10 cwt. were used in the Harvey and Hutton seams respectively, wooden tubs carrying 8.5 cwt in the Low Main and 10 cwt tubs in the Five Quarter seam. All the tubs were well constructed. There was no travelling or hauling in the return roads. Miners going to and returning from their work used both shafts and the main haulage roads. During the interval between the coal winding shifts, only a winding engineman at the Harvey steam engine was on duty.

A Guibal fan, 36 feet diameter and 12 feet wide producing about 102,000 cubic feet per minute at a water gauge of 1.8 inches had ventilated the colliery up to three years before the disaster. At that time, the colliery was partially flooded by surface water and this damaged the foundations of the fan. It was replaced by a Waddle fan, 25 feet in diameter, running at 85 r.p.m. on the surface 25 yards from the upcast shaft to which it was connected by an arched tunnel. During the evening of an ordinary working day, the pit was not occupied by hewers and at weekends, the speed of the fan was reduced. This fan was capable of producing 193,478 cubic feet but on the day of the disaster, it was measured at 155,138 cubic feet at a water gauge of 3 inches.

So that the top of the upcast shaft should remain closed while either cage was at the surface, there was a suitable wooden casing with sliding doors and a similar arrangement was provided tat the Low Main seam to make the best advantage of the fresh air near the shaft. The ventilating currents left the downcast shaft at the various seams in which they were to circulate with the exception of the current for the Five Quarter seam which left the shaft at the Main Coal seam, passed along the road in that seam and then up the stone drift to the Five Quarter seam.

The return from the Harvey seam went up the staple between that seam and the Man Coal and then to the upcast shaft. Part of the return air from the Hutton directly entered the upcast shaft and the remainder passed up the staple between the main Coal and Harvey seams. The Low Main seam return also passed up this staple. The discontinued workings in the Main Coal were ventilated by scales from air from the tale passing to the Five Quarter seam. The return air from the Five Quarter seam entered the upcast shaft directly.

The stoppings, doors, air crossings and regulators were of the usual type but the crossing in the Low Main with the exception of two, one of which was brick arch and the other a point of crossing when the return airway was in strata above the intake airway were fitted with flat-topped wood. The ventilating air for the Low Main seam left the downcast shaft by three short roads leading on to the main haulage road and one small current passed to the upcast shaft to provide the onsetters with fresh air.

The main current amounting to 36,348 cubic feet per minute passed inbye past the drop staple which communicated with the intake in the Main Coal seam above and with the intake to the Low Main seam below and the air in it sometimes moved up and sometimes downwards and it was described by the undermanager as being “on the balance.”

On arriving at the Stable way junction the current split into the Stable Way and the remainder continued to the north. There are doors in the haulage road beyond the landing in the 1st. East way and only a scale of air passed up this road. The current continued north and passed the faces of the 2nd East way and on its way back to the upcast shaft, ventilated the working places on the 1st Eats way.

All the working faces in all the seams only safety lamps of the Marsaut or Donald type were used by the workmen locked by means of a lead plug. The officials used tin-can type Davy lamps secured by a screw lock. Near the shafts, in the intake airways, incandescent electric lamps were used during ordinary working hours supplied by current brought from the surface by a cable in the downcast shaft. A limited number of naked lights were used only in the Low Main seam by the wagonway man and other persons working on the main haulage roads in the intake ways up to the caution roads. At the caution boards, a lighted tin-can Davy lamp, with red glass was hung during the time the hewers were in the pit.

Explosives were used in both coal and stone in all seams. For the most part, permitted explosives were used fired electrically but in the Low Main seam compressed gunpowder fired by the deputies using a wire heated in a safety lamp to light a squib, was the explosive used by the hewers in the coal. Geloxite with a fuse and detonator fired electrically was used for charges in stone. Explosives were rarely used in the Low Main seam except at the working faces. No person was allowed to use explosives in ten mine or carry detonators without and authorisation, partly printed and partly in writing, signed by the undermanager.

The shift for the workmen was arranged as a fore-shift for the hewers which went down at 4 a.m. and worked up to 10.30 a.m. when the places they occupied were filled by a similar number of hewers in the back shift who went down at 9.30 a.m. and finished work at 3.30 p.m. A shift of haulage man and lads went down at 6 a.m. and loaded the coal produced by the hewers. They stopped work at the same time as the back shift hewers. A repairing and stonework shift went into the mine at night. On ordinary nights, the shift in the Five Quarter seam was from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., in the Low Main seam from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. and in the Hutton and Harvey seams from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. but on Sunday nights this shift went down together at 10 p.m., being proceeded by a shift of examiners.

The general control of the whole mine was exercised by Mr. W. Armstrong which acted both as agent and manager. He was a mining engineer and was President of the North of England Institute if mining Engineers in 1898. He was also a senior partner of the mining engineer firm of Messrs Wm. Armstrong & Sons. The undermanager was Mr. Robert Owen who had worked at the Wingate Grange colliery in various capacities for 40 years. There were also four overmen, three back overmen, a master wasteman, three master shifters, forty-two deputies and fifteen examiners in the night shift. Mr. T. Robson, a competent mechanical engineer, had charge under the manger of al the machinery and boilers both above and below ground.

The workmen last made an inspection under General Rule 38 during the month before the explosion. This examination was made by two miners and lasted over 10 days. The report was satisfactory and that referring to the Low Main seam was as follows:

5th September:

We have examined the inlets and return airways, pony ways, engine plane and all working places in the North Flat, 1st. East Flat in the 1st. East district also 2nd. Flat, South Flat and West Flats in the Stable way district and we have found them satisfactory.

7th. September:

We have examined the inlets and return airways, pony ways, engine plane and all working places in the 5th North and 6th North in the 2nd East district and have found them satisfactory.

The colliery had not had a serious accident for the 67 years that it had been established and the men working in the Low Main seam prior to the disaster were working as follows- thirty-six including the master shifter, the official in charge of the seam and an examiner were in the Stable way district. All were at or near the working faces with the exception of a shifter named Bloomfield who was working with a pony and tub, cleaning up the engine plane. Of this number, two lost their lives, Bloomfield by violence and the others by afterdamp. Four were working in the 1st. East way including an examiner, thirteen were in the 2nd. East way district with an examiner and nine of them lost their lives by afterdamp including a shifter named Metcalf who was the only person with a naked light in the seam and was bailing water from a sump by the side of the engine plane. A shifter named Elliott was at the downcast shaft and was blown into the shaft and killed. A stoneman, Maddison was on the engine plane between the Stable way and the 1st. East way and was skilled by violence and burning.

At the moment of the explosion, there were four men. Three lost their lives and a shifter named Dixon was killed close to the downcast shaft but a men with him escaped. A mason and a labourer who were repairing a door near the foot of the incline in the stone drift to the Five Quarter seam lost their lives to afterdamp. Twenty persons were in the Five Quarter seam at the time working near the faces and five of them were killed by the afterdamp. In the seams below the Low Main seam, all the men were near the working faces at the time of the explosion, except three. Two were attending the pumping engine in the Hutton Seam about 100 yards from the downcast shaft and a rapperman in the Harvey seam who was close to the shaft.

The explosion caused the death of twenty-five persons, twenty-four who were killed on the spot and one who was rescued alive but died on the 24th November from pneumonia brought on by the cold and exposure in the pit while waiting to be brought to the surface.

The effect of the explosion at the surface was small but it was clear that something serious had occurred and all the officials were quickly in attendance. The downcast shaft was not damaged at the surface with the exception of some sheets being displaced. Ten panes of glass in the windows facing the shaft in the Harvey winding house were broken. One Harvey seam cage was a fathom or two below the flat sheets at the surface and the other a corresponding distance from the bottom and the Hutton Seam cages were clear in the shaft. The casing around the top of the upcast shaft sustained little damage and the cages in the Low Main shaft were not damaged at all.

Doors in a short arched road isolating the Guibal fan from the Waddle fan were displaced but this was not discovered for some days and until it was put right, the full ventilation was not obtained in the mine. The fan was not damaged but the engineman, who was close by, and had raised the speed of the engine at the moment of the explosion, looked at the water gauge and found it had dropped. This was due to the short-circuiting of the air in the Low Main Seam as a result of the explosion. At once he gave the engineman steam until the water gauge was raised to the normal three inches.

Only the winding engineman for the Harvey Seam winding engine was in attendance at the time of the blast but the other winding enginemen were quickly summoned. When the Harvey and Hutton engineman tried to raise their cages, they were unable do so but the cages in the upcast shaft were free and a descent was made by that shaft.

When the Main Coal was reached the rescue party were able to go inbye and found Dixon’s body near the downcast shaft. They found the top of the drop staple wrecked but were able to proceed to the stone drift in the Five Quarter seam and round the workings in that seam.

Twenty-two men and boys were rescued from the Main Coal and the Five Quarter seams and the bodies of eight of the victims were sent to the surface. During the exploration of the Main Coal and the Five Quarters the ambulance knowledge of some of the rescuers was used to good advantage and several men owed their lives to the prompt application of artificial respiration.

Before the Low Main was reached, shouts were heard from below indicating that there were men alive in the Hutton and Harvey seams. The Low Main was reached about 1 a.m. on the 15th October and it was soon evident that this was the scene of the explosion. No living person was seen near the shafts nor were there any bodies. Elliott’s body was found on the 23rd October in the sump of that shaft at the Harvey Seam. The casing at the upcast shaft in the Low Main was destroyed and the bulk of the air was passing directly from the downcast shaft to the upcast shaft. Heavy timbers in the sides of the shaft had been displaced but, owing to the strong nature of the roof, there were large falls of stone which impeded the rescue work.

The Low Main was rapidly explored but owing to the state of the shafts and the fact that the explosion had wrecked the steam pipes and no use could be made of the winding engine in the Main Coal Seam at the top of the Harvey staple or the steam winch at the top of the staple between the Low Main and the Harvey seams, the men in the Hutton and Harvey seams who were alive and uninjured had to wait until the necessary repairs had been completed. Refreshments were lowered to them from time to time down the downcast shaft by means of a rope and a small engine at the surface.

In exploring the Low Main it was found necessary to erect canvas stoppings between the shafts and as the exploration proceeded, to repair some of the doors and stoppings which had been displaced. The work went on smoothly and there was no problem with afterdamp. Work went on remorselessly to recover all the bodies except that of Elliott and the safe rescue of the living. The work was completed by 9 a.m. on Tuesday the 16th October. Elliott’s body was found after a long search and found on the 23rd of October in the sump of the shaft.

During the rescue work the shafts men man, both regular hands at the colliery and some sinkers and shaft men from adjoining collieries volunteered their services and performed the most dangerous and disagreeable duties. Mr. F. Coulson, a mining engineer in the district who was an expert in shaft sinking was called in by the owners and under his direction; the restoration of the shafts was safely accomplished.

Fifty-six horses and ponies were killed in the stables in the Low Main Seam by the afterdamp. At the time of the blast eight ponies, we reworking in the Low Main Seam. Two were killed on the Stable way engine plane, one in the Main Road and six others working on the stable way survived. Two other ponies were killed between the downcast shaft and the drop staple in the Main Coal.

Those who lost their lives were:

The miners:

• John Dixon aged 61 years,
• William Studham aged 51 years,
• Lord Bentley aged 65 years,
• Edward Hardy aged 63 years,
• Nat Farnworth aged 58 years,
• Alfred G. Harris aged 51 years,
• George Broomfield aged 43 years,
• Joseph Grafton aged 66 years,
• Thomas Kay aged 55 years,
• Thomas H. Elliott aged 46 years,
• James Morrison aged 45 years,
• Joseph Grafton aged 66 years.

The shifters:

• James Mason aged 49 years,
• Henry Pace aged 46 years,
• Thomas Maddison aged 24 years.

The stonemen:

• George Baylis aged 58 years,,
• Thomas Bainbridge aged 53 years.

Examiners:

• William Hockday aged 55 years,
• Charles Stockdale aged 32 years.

The sinkers at the staple:

• Isaac James aged 43 years,
• Patrick Dinlavey aged 62 years,
• James Ainsley aged 21 years, mason,
• Thomas Metcalfe aged 56 years, pumper,
• George Smith aged 46 years, sump emptier,
• George Mason aged 60 years, shifter.

The mine was thoroughly examined after the disaster and Mr. Atkinson said:

From the indications of the direction of the force, there was no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the explosion had come outbye to the shafts from some point on the main road to the north, by its junction with the Stable way and then passed into the shafts and into the Stable way.

All the evidence showed that the explosion was one of coal dust and air alone and was neither caused not aggravated by firedamp. The theory was put forward that Maddison had fired a shot, without authority, in the main haulage road. Some Geloxite and a length of fuse was missing from the shotfirer’s box which was discovered intact in a refuge hole close to the scene of the explosion and near the shotfirer’s body. It was found that a shot had been fired to blow down a small piece of stone on the side of the road. The stone was no way dangerous and had been in the place for over 25 years and no orders had been given for itÕs removal. The man who fired the shot was killed in the explosion and was a licensed shotfirer and was stated to be a very steady man. He had no drilling gear and had placed the explosive on a ledge of stone and fired it with drilling and stemming which was in direct contravention of the Explosives Order and Mines Act and without special authorisation, a shot should not have been fired on the engine plane.

The road in question was not one that was considered dry and dusty as the floor was damp but some very fine coal dust was deposited on the rough stone of the walls, the pack walls and timbers. This was the accumulation of many years and was ignited by the explosion. The Inspector commented

Had the regulations been observed the shot could have been fired with safety and the explosion would not have occurred?

In his report, Mr. Bain said:

The danger of coal dust alone without and a mixture of firedamp has not been fully recognised until recent years, and even now is not admitted by some mining engineers, and by many officials and workmen.

There can be no doubt about it this was clearly at Timsbury and Camerton Colliery explosions in Somersetshire some years ago, and now again at Wingate.

It had been argued that if this danger exists to the extent now claimed that explosions would be of daily occurrence where gunpowder is used in the coal faces but the argument is not sound. The dust in the faces in nearly all cases is course and heavy and would not lend itself to the propagation of an explosion.

The danger lies in the very fine particles of dust, often as fine as the finest flour, which are carried down the shafts from the screens or blown off the top of the tubs in their transit to the shaft and which settles, almost unobserved, one the sides, roof, timbers and floors of the engine planes, and it only requires a small initial explosion whether of gas or some explosive to cause an explosion which may extend throughout the mine.

A great deal had been done in this district and is still being done to remove this danger. Many miles of water pipes and suitable standards and hose pipes at fixed distances have been laid down, water tubs with sprays of various sorts are in use and a system of spraying the tubs automatically with water before leaving the landings for their journey to the shaft has been found to act very beneficially. Methods of dealing with dust on the screens have also been successfully applied at some collieries. Brushing away and clearing the dust from the main roads has been done for a considerable time in places where watering seriously affects the roof and sides as it does with certain classes of stone.

Given an area free from dust or a zone of road perfectly wet, if an explosion should occur from any cause, the evil effects of it will be greatly reduced and the area much circumscribed, and I hope this is now being more fully realised by the persons responsible for the safety of mines

None but the most efficient men, and the fewer the better, should be appointed shotfirers and care should be taken to see that they thoroughly understand their duties and responsibilities before being authorised to act in such a position. I am glad to say that steps are being taken in this direction.

Something might be done with a view to reducing the number of shots fired, and firing the between shifts or when the majority of men are out of the mine.

At the same time, I do not wish it to be inferred that there is no great danger from an ignition of firedamp alone, many lives have been lost from this cause and every precaution must be taken to keep working places, returns and all parts of the mine free from an inflammable mixture of gas and air. This has been understood for many years but what I want to point out is that an additional danger exists which has not been recognised but which is a stronger factor in the safest working of a colliery.

The jury which included several practical miners brought in the verdict:

That the said Edward Hardy aged 63 years of the Row, Wingate Grange Colliery, shifter in the coal mine was on the 14th day of October killed in the Five Quarter Seam of the Wingate Lord Pit by an explosion, caused by the firing of a shot in the main haulage way in the Low Main seam of the Wingate Lord Pit, some 676 yards or thereabouts from the shaft, on the said 14th October last and we leave the question of the future management of the pit in the hands of miners, inspectors, the owners and the representatives of the Miners Union and therefore say that Edward Hardy, in the manner aforesaid, accidentally came to his death.

In his report, Mr. Ruegg said:

It will be noted that the jury did not find that the shot was fired by Maddison and did not say whether the explosion was caused by coal dust or not. When it is remembered that the jury contained a large element of men with practical experience of mining, this omission in the verdict is very significant of the attitude still held by miners with regard to coal dust explosions.

 I think, if a circular was sent from the Home Office to the managers of all coal mines, pointing out that the Home Office has ascertained from its Inspectors and from reports, as to the danger of coal dust, and requesting the managers to bring this in turn to the notice of all miners engaged in the mine, it would be attended with considerable advantage.

 I also think it would be advantageous if the Home Office required that every licensed shotfirer should have the General and Special Rules as to shotfiring printed on his authorisation form.

 I would also recommend that the attention of the mine owners should be called to the risk of coal dust being carried into the haulage ways by means of the downcast shaft when, as was the case at the Wingate Grange Colliery, the coal is screened quite near the top of the downcast shaft.

 My strongest recommendation, however, is that all main haulage roads should, as far as possible, be kept clear of coal dust. I think this should be made compulsory.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report.
Reports of His Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Home Department on the circumstances attending an explosion which occurred at Wingate Grange Colliery, Wingate, on the 14th October 1906 by A.H. Ruegg, K, and R.D. Bain and J.B. Atkinson, M.Sc., two of His majesty’s inspectors of mines.
Colliery Guardian, 19th October 1906, p.754, 26th October, p.801, 2nd November, p.882, 9th November, p.902, 22nd March 1907, p.533, 5th April 1907, p.635.

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

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