MAURICEWOOD. Glencourse, Midlothian. 5th. September, 1889.

The pit was at Glencourse in the County of Edinburgh and was owned by the Shotts Iron Company, Limited since 1875. The Company also owned other collieries and had blast furnaces in Lanark. Mr. Robert Bell was the chairman of the Company and Mr. A.W. Turnbull the secretary and general commercial manager.

Mr. John Lowe was the certificated manager of the Penicuick Mine which is on the west side of the Midlothian coalfield, and the other officials of the mine were, George Muir, overman who was killed by the fire, William Gall, a mechanical engineer, George Hunter who was an inspector or fireman who was killed, Edward Lydon, another fireman who was killed, David Penman fireman who was killed, Robert Dickenson, a roadsman who was killed and James Somerskill

The coalfield has a very steep dip and the seams, where they outcrop are known locally as “edge” seams and are generally free from firedamp. The pit is at an angle of 40 to 50 degrees for four hundred yards from the outcrop and then they flatten out. The seam is known as the Great Seam. The Penicuick mines had two establishments, the Greenlaw and the Mauricewood pits, which were about one thousand yards apart and were connected by a single road called the “Communication road”. The Greenlaw pit has a circular shaft up which coal is raised and this was the downcast shaft. There was an incline in the seam from the surface called the No.1 incline. This was used as the upcast shaft and was fitted with ladders and contained steam pipes.

At the Mauricewood pit there was an oval vertical shaft nineteen and a half feet by five and a half feet and 84 fathoms deep. This shaft was divided by a wooden wall, fourteen and a half feet by five and a half feet downcast for air and containing pumps cage and dook ropes and the other five feet by five and a half feet upcast shaft for air containing the steam pipes. The shaft passed through the Great Seam at 59 fathoms and was curtained 25 fathoms below. From the point where the shaft intersected the Great Seam, an incline extended to the basin. The incline was reached at the level of the bottom of the shaft by another level crosscut mine at a point called the “dook head”.

The Mauricewood and the Greenlaw pits were managed as separate establishments and except for the fact that the Greenlaw was the second shaft for the Mauricewood pit, in compliance with Section 16 of the Coal Mines Act, and Greenlaw water flowed from the bottom of the Mauricewood shaft.

Mining operations had started at Mauricewood at the outcrop with coal being drawn up the No.2 incline some years before. As the workings went were continued, the shaft was sunk and from the bottom, and the incline was driven deeper until the bottom of the basin was reached. While this incline was being driven, another incline was driven the whole distance which was used as the return air-way from the 80 fathom level upwards but below that point it had to be abandoned. At the time of the fire, the whole of the output came from the basin or flat portion of the coalfield and the No.2 incline from Mauricewood was not in use at the time of the fire. The mine was free from firedamp and coal dust and ordinary Scottish miner’s lamps were used.

The pit mined iron ore and coal on the east side ironstone was worked by a longwall method and on the west side, coal was worked, again by the longwall method below the ironstone waste. The ironstone and coal were filled into tubs called locally “hutches” at the working places which were then passed to the “lye” or sidings by the drawers. The ironstone on the south side passed down a self-acting endless chain incline and then drawn by ponies to the main winding incline the coal from the west side was drawn directly from the lye by ponies to the main incline. Three ponies, about twelve and a half hands high, were used and the roads were the normal size.

The mine was ventilated by a Waddle fan, eighteen feet in diameter at the surface which ran at 45 r.p.m. and the natural heat of the mine and the steam pipes also helped with the ventilation. The air went down the downcast shaft and where it reached the Great Seam, it was split down the incline to the dook head, where it joined the other portion which had passed from the bottom and along the cross-cut mine.

There was water in the mine which had to be pumped out and an engine raised water from the bottom of the shaft for eighteen hours a day at two hundred and sixty gallons per minute. An engine at the eighty-fathom level, situated in the return air-way, forced the water to the dook head for seventeen hours a day raising thirty-six gallons per minute.

On the 5th September Mr. H. Hunter the engineman at the one hundred and sixty levels, came to the surface at 5 a.m. and he had seen no signs of the fire near the engine house. George Hunter and E. Lydon, the night shift inspectors or firemen were in the mine from 10 p.m. on the 4th to 7 a.m. on the 5th and examined the mine before the day shift came down. Both made satisfactory reports and nothing was wrong at that time.

On the 5th September, one hundred and two men were employed at the colliery, seventy-seven underground and twenty-five above ground. The fire was first observed, there were seventy men underground of which sixty-three lost their lives and only seven survived. The miners descended the shaft and the main incline about 6.30 a.m. and work went on as usual to 12 noon. The manager Mr. Lowe met the overman George Muir on the surface when he came up the pit for his breakfast at 10 a.m.

Muir returned to the mine about 11.15 a.m. and was seen at the bottom of the pit by the bottomer Mr. W. Robb. He had gone to do some repairs at the engine at 80 fathoms level with William Gall, a mechanical engineer and John Walker, a labourer. They descended at 11.30 a.m. The day shift engineman Mr. H. Macpherson was there at the engine when they arrived. Of the seventy persons underground, there were five between the dook and the shaft, three at the 80 fathom level and there were sixty-two at the 160 fathom level.

At 12 noon a pony driver, Mitchell Hamilton, came from the east side to the foot of the main incline and called the attention of Mr. Robb to a fire in the engine house. Robb saw that the door leading to the return upcast was on fire and he came put shutting the door to the level behind him. He raised the alarm and some boys at the foot of the incline ran to warn the miners. A signal came to the 160 fathom level to send away the carriage for men at the 80 fathom level. As the carriage went away, Robb stepped on to and it before he reached the 80 fathom level he met smoke pouring from the door of the engine house. The carriage was drawn to the dook head and Robb was the only survivor from the 160 fathom level.

As Robb saw the fire, Gall, Walker and Macpherson were at the engine at the 80 fathom level and were alarmed by bad air and smoke coming to them. They came through the door to the main incline and signalled for the carriage. Gall had shut the door as they came through and dense volumes of smoke followed them. Walker and Macpherson lay down between the incline and the door. Gall started to climb the incline and reached the dook head level.  After it had known what had happened the carriages were run up and down several times without signals and four people came out but they were either dead or died immediately afterwards.

Attempts were made to reach the 80 fathom level on the carriages but it was found that it was impossible, owing to the smoke eddying upwards for 10 fathoms. The smoke was coming from the door past the engine house and to a lesser extent through the level of the main incline. The speed of the fan was increased and the area of the incline reduced by brattice to half its size in the hope that the increased velocity would clear the air. The smoke became less and the 80 fathom level was reached by midnight on the 5th. and the bodies of Macpherson and Walker were recovered. The rescuers made their way to the 80 fathom level and tried to shut the door by means of a long pole. The door was open a few inches but sprang back again and they were unable to keep it closed.

A stopping of brattice cloth was placed at the mouth of the 80 fathom level on the east side of the main incline. About 1 p.m. on 6th September, twenty-five hours after the fire broke out; the 120 fathom level was reached. Smoke was still hanging in the incline below, but on shutting the door in the air crossing at 120 fathoms level it cleared away and the 160 fathom level was reached at 2 p.m. on the 6th. It was soon found that the fire had extended to the engine house along the east side level to a few yards of the foot of the main incline. The timber was burning fiercely and the road was fallen and blackened. Near the foot of the incline and the coal workings nineteen bodies were found on the west side. Water from hoses was played on the fires and every effort was made to recover the bodies but the rising water stopped all operations.

An effort was made to reach the east side door in the air-crossing at the 120 level and proceeding inbye from that point but on opening the door, dense smoke came to the main incline of the 80 fathom level. The effort was abandoned and it was decided to close the mine. Airtight scaffolding was placed on the top of the Mauricewood and Greenlaw pits and the No.1 incline. This was done at 3 p.m. on the 7th September and a day or two afterwards they were removed from the Greenlaw pit and the incline and a stopping erected in the communication road near Greenlaw pit.

On the 4th October the mine was re-opened and the fire appeared to have been extinguished. Measures were taken to pump the water out of the pit. It had risen thirty-seven fathoms up the slope from the bottom of the main incline. On the 7th October, smoke was observed ascending the pipe upset at 80 fathom level and stoppings were placed in the roads leading downwards immediately below the 80 fathom level. The stoppings were removed and the water started to be pumped out. The 160 fathom level was reached on 16th March 1890 and from the main level the thirty-six bodies in the mine were recovered. Three were found in the sump at the bottom of the main incline. Twenty-nine on the east side of this, seventeen of them were headed by George Muir, the overman, were found in the intake side of the door separating the east side intake and the return air-way and the remaining four bodies were found on the west side of the return air-way. The position of the bodies threw no light on the disaster.

The victims recovered in September 1889:

  • James Somerville, aged 18 years, roadman.
  • Robert Dickson, aged 33 years roadman.
  • Thomas Foster, aged 17 years, pony driver on the west side.
  • Alexander Stewart, aged 21 years, drawer on the east side.
  • George Penicuik, jnr, aged 14 years, drawer on the west side.
  • Richard Hamilton, aged 14 years, drawer on the west side.
  • James Wright, aged 16 years, drawer on the west side.
  • Andrew Wallace, aged 14 years, drawer on the west side.
  • William Daly, aged 33 years, miner on the west side.
  • Robert Miller, aged 17 years, miner on the west side.
  • John Walker, aged 38 years, miner on the west side.
  • George Livingstone, aged 45 years, miner on the west side.
  • John Frazer, aged 16 years, miner on the west side.
  • Thomas Adams, aged 24 years, miner on the west side.
  • William Hunter, aged 51 years, miner on the west side.
  • Robert Hamilton, aged 26 years, miner on the west side.
  • Alexander McKinlay, aged 28 years, miner on the west side.
  • David Wallace, aged 22 years, miner on the west side.
  • James Stark, aged 19 years, miner on the west side.
  • Martin Stark, aged 24 years, miner on the west side.
  • Robert Hunter, aged 44 years, miner on the west side.
  • John Sennet, aged 15 years who was working the fan on the west side.
  • Hugh McPherson, aged 60 years the engineman at the 80 fathom level.
  • John Walker, aged 62 years, mechanic at the 80 fathom level.
  • Robert Tomlie, aged 14 years and
  • William Urquhart, aged 18 years, bottomers who were working at the foot of the main incline.

Those recovered in March 1890:

  • George Muir, aged 45 years an overman.
  • David Penman, aged 27 years an inspector.
  • Thomas Hunter, aged 38 years, bottomer who was working on the east side incline.
  • Mitchell Hamilton, aged 16 years, pony driver on the east side.
  • Thomas Bennet, aged 29 years, drawer on the east side.
  • David Anderson, aged 32 years, drawer on the east side.
  • Martin Morgan, aged 20 years, drawer on the east side.
  • William Brockie, aged 26 years, drawer on the east side.
  • Robert Kinninmount, aged 17 years, drawer on the west side.
  • James Porteous, aged 29 years, miner working on the east side.
  • William Lamb, aged 22 years, miner on the east side.
  • Robert Porterfield, aged 15 years, miner on the east side.
  • David Porterfield, aged 15 years, miner on the east side.
  • William Dempster, aged 31 years, miner on the east side.
  • William Grieve, aged 33 years, miner on the east side.
  • William Meikle, aged 44 years, miner on the east side.
  • William Meikle jur, aged 15 years, miner on the east side.
  • Walter Meikle, aged 12 years, miner on the east side.
  • James Irvine, aged 32 years, miner on the east side.
  • William Brown, aged 21 years, miner on the east side.
  • Thomas Meikle, aged 41 years, miner on the east side.
  • Robert Dempster, aged 37 years, miner on the east side.
  • Robert Dempster jnr, aged 14 years, miner on the east side.
  • William Wright, aged 19 years, miner on the east side.
  • John Purves, aged 26 years, miner on the east side.
  • Daniel McKenzie, aged 16 years, miner on the east side.
  • William Brown, aged 25 years, miner on the east side.
  • Mitchell Hamilton, aged 41 years, miner on the east side.
  • Thomas Strang, aged 31 years, miner on the east side.
  • John Glass, aged 28 years, miner on the west side.
  • George Penuick, aged 40 years, miner on the west side.
  • Matthew Wright, aged 34 years, miner on the west side.
  • Peter McPherson, aged 17 years, miner on the west side.
  • David Kinninmount, aged 45 years, miner on the west side.
  • William Miller, aged 14 years, pumper on the east side.
  • Charles Hamilton, aged 14 years, pumper.

The Inspector thought that the cause of the accident was smoke from a fire the return which penetrated the workings but how the fire was caused there was no evidence to show or that it was due to any want of care of the management of the mine. The Inspector went on:

It does not appear to me that the secondary cause of the accident, the inspection of a current of hot air and smoke from the return upset to the main incline at the 80 fathom level, was anticipated or might reasonably have been anticipated by the management of the mine. I am not aware of any loss of life from a similar cause although some case without loss of life have occurred and are recorded under the title of “Paradoxes in the ventilation of Mines” in the Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers Vol. XIL, page 93.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report 1889.
The Colliery Guardian, 13th October 1889, p.382, 28th October 1889, p.595, 1st November 1889, p.633, 3rd January p.27, 21st March 1890, p.443.

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

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