Collingwood Main Colliery Explosion – Newcastle-on-Tyne – 1815

COLLINGWOOD MAIN. Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland. 17th. July, 1815.

George Johnson viewer at Heaton Colliery, in evidence to the Select Committee, recalled:

The accident happened in consequence of an overman with deputies and others having gone down the pit to secure timber and iron and other materials, that were likely to be lost by a sudden creep having come on in that part of the mine. They were working with candles, the inflammable gas exploded and these poor men were lost.

It was thought that the gas came as a result of the creep that had occurred.

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