MONTAGU. Scotswood, Northumberland. 30th. March, 1925.
The Montagu Colliery was in the Parish of Sugley about three and a half miles west of the General Post Office in Newcastle-on-Tyne and had two shafts known as the “Caroline” and the “View” pits. The Caroline Pit worked the Beaumont, Tilley, Five Quarter and Brockwell seams and the View Pit worked the Tilley and the Brockwell seams and it was in the Brockwell seam that the disaster occurred.
The lessees were William Benson and Son, Limited. The leasehold of the Company was immediately next to that of William Cochran Carr, Limited and both were in the Benwell Estate and held by the same landlord and the Brockwell seam extended through both leases.
From 1821 the royalty was not divided and to 1848 the Brockwell seam was worked by Mr. Matthew Liddell from a shaft on the leasehold of William Cochran Carr. Over a period it was known as the Paradise, Beaumont or West Benwell pit and was a mile and a quarter to the east of the View pit. The workings extended on both sides of the boundary line which divided the leaseholds in 1925. The workings were abandoned in 1848 when the coal became unsaleable and flooded.
After transactions in 1876 and 1877, the mineral field was divided and came into existence in 1881 and from 31st. December 1883, Thomas Walter Benson, William Robert Benson and Walter Benson leased an area of 750 acres. These Bensons were all dead in 1925 but they were the founders of Benson and Son Limited. The late William Cochran Carr became the lessee of minerals, including the Brockwell seam, to the east of the same line under a lease dated 23rd October 1884. Both these old leases made no mention of the old workings.
The old pre-1848 workings in the Brockwell seam from the Paradise pit were never re-opened and remained waterlogged. Their existence was known to William Cochran and barred off on a line drawn on a working plan and the Brockwell seam was worked on another part of the lease from Charlotte pit which was some distance to the north of the Paradise pit.
On the western lease, the Montagu colliery from 1884 onwards, worked the Brockwell seam extensively from the View pit and at the time of the accident the workings to the east had approached to within 94 yards of their neighbour’s leasehold. They were required to leave a barrier of 40 yards on their side of the boundary and so they had 54 yards to work.
For some time before the accident, bord and pillar work had been in progress in the Brockwell seam from the View pit in an easterly direction in a district known as Robson’s Bord Flat. On the night of Friday 27th March two men Fenton and Perkins had been working for two or three weeks in this flat and were hewing coal 1689 yards from the pit bottom if the roadways were followed. They stopped working at 11 p.m. and went to the surface and no work was done in this heading until the following Monday morning when the disaster occurred.
On the right-hand side of the working place, there was a “jud” or a projection of unworked coal about six feet wide and three and a half feet deep which was the next piece to be worked. It had been left by the two men of Friday night. The place was reasonably dry and the small quantities of water that gathered were tubbed away and here had been no complaints about wet conditions from the men. Neither Fenton nor Perkins had any inclination of the danger ahead.
At midnight on Sunday 29th March, Joseph Robson, the deputy in charge of the district went down the View pit about 3.30 a.m. and made his inspection about 4.45 a.m. to make his inspection before the morning shift descended. Small quantities of water had accumulated over the weekend and he gave orders that it should be removed in the usual way. There was no water at the face and Robson returned on the “Kist” on the Irish ropeway and wrote his report which was recovered eight months later and although it had been in water all that time it was still legible. It read:
Noxious and inflammable gasses. None.
State of ventilation. Good.
Condition of roof and sides All right.
Supply of timber
a). Working places Good.
b). Pass-byes, sidings, etc.
Other matters affecting safety and remarks. Satisfactory.
Felton and Perkins and the rest of the men came into the pit and two other men, Matthew Errington and W. Guthrie obtained the deputy’s permission to work with them. There were 107 men and 41 boys working in the Brockwell seam that morning. When Errington and Guthrie started work they found that the piece of coal already mentioned had been drilled with two shot holes about a yard deep and a shot hole had been drilled in the face on the left of the projection. About 9.30 a.m. Robson charged these three shots and they did their work bringing down six or seven tubs of coal and roughly straightening the line of the face. Robson then left the place and at about 9.45 a.m. received a message from Errington by a putter, James Tracy to the effect that Errington thought he had “holed”. Going back to the face he found a little trickle of water coming through the middle of the seam between two shots in the “jud”. There appeared to be no pressure behind it but it had an unpleasant smell and he knew it was not “virgin coal water”. He went out a little at and told his son, the water leader James Robson to go and fetch one of the overmen.
Just after the boy left they heard a bang. He told his son and Tracy to run, Robson turned into the bord but after going about five yards he saw the water rushing towards him and completely filling the tunnel. His lamp went out and he ran after his son who coupled up some tubs and found two drivers on the road and they were drawn to the main road by a pony.
The drivers, James Robson and Tracy were taken out but Robson went into the workings of the Dip Hitch Flat and brought out five men. The eight that remained in “Robson’s Bord Flat”, were working close to the inrush and drowned in a very short time.
As the water came in, it began to rush across the Irish ropeway and the travelling road parallel to it into the lower workings where men were working. As it went into the Irish ropeway it was seen by some lads who were able to warn some of the men. Unfortunately, the water began to fill a depression, called the “swelly”, which ran across the ropeway. This resulted in the ropeway being filled to the roof before the water got to the inner workings. The majority of the men who escaped had to wade through several feet of water, but seventeen were trapped. Their bodies were found together at the flat in the 4th. Headway lying in attitudes which suggested they had been suffocated by blackdamp before the water reached them. The remaining thirteen bodies were recovered from the lower districts where the victims drowned in the early stages of the disaster.
The back overman, Sam Evans lost his life going back through the “swelly” when it was filling to get at the missing men. He was unable to return as the water rose so fast.
Those who lost their lives were:
- William Halliday of 2, Swinburn Terrace, Bell’s Close.
- John Murthwaite of 65, Aline Street, Benwell.
- John Martin Snr. of 16, Ridley Terrace, Scotswood
- Matthew Erington, the Pit Yard, Delaval.
- James Nixon, 25, Giuehouse Lane, Elswick.
- Joseph Nixon, 9, Danskin Place, Scotswood.
- Robert Hislop, Pumping Engine, Scotswood.
- Charles Simpson, 43, Providence Terrace, Scotswood.
- Isaac Both, 898, Scotswood Road, Scotswood.
- Robert Thompson, 77, St Margaret’s Road, Scotswood.
- John Thompson, 69, Deval Road, Benwell.
- Alfred Dent, 232, Whitfield Road, Scotswood.
- George Hetherington, 2 Front Street, Bells Close.
- Matt Hetherington, St George Terrace, Bells Close.
- Christopher Batey, 9, Providence Terrace, Scotswood.
- Thomas Batey, 24, Prospect Terrace, Scotswood.
- Ralph Carr 2, Chapel Terrace, Scotswood.
- Robert Havelock, 10, Suntet Street, Delaval.
- William Trewicks, 18 Boat House Street, Deleval.
- John Thoms Trewicks, 9 Cabbon Street Elswick.
- William Fowler, 5, Prospect Terrace, Scotswood.
- Edward Jackson, 15 Norwich Street, Delaval.
- John Lea, 45, Blackett Terrace, Scotswood.
- Sam Evans, Pumping Engine, Scotswood.
- William Thompson, 80, Shaftoe Street, Scotswood.
- Wiliam Lyons, 39, Norwich Street, Delaval.
- Alex Learmouth, 55, Norwich Street, Delaval.
- James Steel, Pumping Engine, Scotswood.
- Richard Rodgers, 212, Whitfield Road, Scotswood.
- William Guthrie, Chapel Terrace, Scotswood.
- Thomas Letcham Jnr. 100, Norwich Street, Delaval.
- John Salmon, 26, High Street, Benwell.
- D.G. Dixon, 58. Joan Street, Benwell.
- John Fitzpatrick, 71, Norwich Street, Delaval.
- Charles Gray, 38, Aline Street, Benwell.
The inquiry into the disaster was held at the Assize Court at the Moot Hall, Newcastle-on-Tyne and the 26th and 27th January 1926 by the Right Honourable Hugh Pattison Macmillan, K with the assistance of Henry Walker, C.B.E., H.M. Chief Inspector of Mines as the technical assessor. Representing the Mines Department were Mr. T. Greenland Davies, H.M. Divisional Inspector of Mines and Mr. H.T. Foster, H.M. Senior Inspector of Mines, for Messrs. William Benson and Son Ltd., who were the lessees of the colliery, Mr. E.A. Mitchell-Innes, K, C.B.E, and for the Royalty owners, Mr. W.W. Gibson. Colonel W Blackett, C.B.E., represented the Institution of Mining Engineers, Mr. Herbert Smith and Mr. W.P. Richardson represented the Miners Federation of Great Britain and Mr. W. Stanker for the Northumberland Miners Mutual Confident Association. Mr. Coulthard and Mr. Johnson for the General Federation of Fireman’s, Examiners and Deputies
Associations of Great Britain, Mr. R. Nuttall for the Northern Colliery Officials Mutual Aid Association and Mr. John Mackay for the Montagu Miners Lodge.
The inquiry established beyond doubt that the cause of the accident was the breaking of the “jud” by the two shots causing the barrier between the old workings to break. It was estimated that the water pressure was 80 pounds per square inch and that after the shots had been fired, there were six inches of coal holding it back. This slender barrier held the water for about half an hour.
It was also established that no one in the mine knew of the danger. There was a general knowledge of the waterlogged workings of the old, disused Paradise pit. Mr. Carr said that his father, who was dead, had once casually observed in conversation that borings should be done in that part of the workings but the inquiry did not put much store in this hearsay evidence.
Mr. Macmillan was concerned about the information that was available on old coal workings. Old documents were found after the disaster in the private desk of the late Mr. Thomas Walter Benson and correspondence between him and the late Mr. William Armstrong who was a mining engineer who was acting for both parties and who was a check viewer for the Benwell Royalty since 1841. The letters mainly concerned royalty payments and the disappointing quality of the coal in the Brockwell seam and quite incidentally the workings of the old Paradise pit came up.
On the 30th August 1887, Mr. Armstrong wrote to Mr, Benson:
I am sorry to hear your account of the Brockwell – you are entitled to concession under the circumstances – but certainly, the seam is better in the Pit worked by Mr. Matt Liddell some years ago (this refers to the disused workings in the Brockwell seam in the old Paradise pit from which the water broke through). Did I not send you sections of the seam as ascertained by myself? And the copy of the workings I then made I cannot find and I may possibly have sent to you. I shall see you shortly on the subject.
On the next day, 31st August 1887, Mr. Armstrong wrote a further letter to Mr. Benson as follows:
I send you my Copy Notes from my Pit Book, notes made by myself on the Brockwell seam when I examined the pit with Matthew Liddell. I have a copy of the Working plan at the date, but I cannot put my hands at present upon it if you think it would be of assistance to you I will look over my library once more. I have an idea that I forwarded you a copy of this Plan – or probably the Plan itself. As to the extent of the workings when the Seam was abandoned, I cannot say the Plan is complete, but you may know when the seam was abandoned and you can judge from the date of the Notes what further extension there would be from memory. I should say that not much more was done, but you must not place any reliance upon this.
To these letters, Mr. Benson replied in 1st September 1887:
I am obliged for yours of the 30th and 31st inst. also for the copy of the notes, you kindly have sent me. I expect they refer to the “West” or Beaumont Pit near Paradise which is some distance East of my boundary and is I believe the only pit down to the Brockwell.
With regard to the working plan mentioned in yours of the 31st inst., I have never seen it and am pretty sure you did not send it to me. In any case, as I believe all the workings in the Brockwell from the Paradise Pit are some distance outside our tract of the Royalty, I think you need not take much trouble to find it, at the same time I am obliged for the offer. From what I can gather from some of the old men who worked at the Paradise Pit, the coal there must have been a great deal better and easier to work than anything we have come across as I think the total cost of Pit Bill, mentioned in your notes, would hardly pay the hewers now.
I shall be glad to confer with you on the matter if you will kindly give me an appointment sometime shortly.
Some later letters relating to the re-adjustment of the royalty scale carried the following paragraph at the end of a letter dated 27th December 1887 from Mr. Armstrong to Mr. Benson:
I think I forwarded you some time ago a tracing I took from Liddell’s plan a short time before working was abandoned. Have you this or any other such tracing? for these workings must be filled with water and you should arrange precautionary boreholes.
After this, the workings do not appear in any correspondence but in 1911 the workings in the Charlotte Pit on the eastern leasehold, came into contact with water on the northern boundary and Mr. Cochran Carr was aware that there were waterlogged workings to the south, decided to mark his working plan. He had an old tracing of the workings but was unsure of its accuracy and contacted Messrs. William Armstrong and Sons, mining engineers and wrote on 13th March 1911:
We should be glad if you could give us some information as to the extent of the workings in the Brockwell Seam south of the Charlotte Pit. We believe that the coal from this seam was worked from the Beaumont Pit near to the river previous to 1848, and we think you have a record. We shall be obliged if you can show us the plan and allow us to take a copy.
Mr. William Armstrong, Junior sent a tracing of the workings to Mr. A.S. Dinning, Land and Mining surveyor, Newcastle-on-Tyne with the following instructions:
Dear Sir,
Mr. Cochran has asked us to forward the enclosed tracing to make a copy of the workings south of the Charlotte Pit within the pencilled line. Will you kindly proceed with this, forwarding your copy and charges to Mr. Carr and returning the original to us?
Yours faithfully,
William Armstrong and Son,
p.p. J.M.T.
The plan was returned with additions by Mr. Dinning and was used as a working plan up to 1913 but as the workings in the Brockwell seam from the Charlotte Pit the plan was not large enough to show them and a new plan was made showing the workings in the seam from the Paradise Pit only up to the boundary.
On the afternoon of the disaster, Mr. Young who was employed by William Cochran Carr, Limited went to the office of William Benson and Son, Limited and produced Mr. Dinning’s plan. A day or two later Mr. Young brought the tracing showing the whole of the workings in the Brockwell Seam on both sides of the boundary. On studying these plans there was no doubt where the water came from.
The facts were that the knowledge of the old workings was in existence at the time of the accident, in the hands of the lessor’s mining engineers and the lessees of the adjoining colliery but was not in the possession of the lessees of the Montagu Colliery.
There were lessons to be learned from the disaster. There was provision made by The Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1872 to preserve plans of abandoned mines and further legislation followed in 1887 and 1896 but the legislation made the plans accessible only to the Inspectors and persons who the Department had given a licence and the point in this disaster was that neither the lessors nor the lessees of the Montagu colliery had access to the plans.
Mr. Hugh Macmillan’s report made the following recommendations:
1. That there should be imposed by Statute on the respective owners or lessees of adjoining going mines a mutual duty to give notice to each other whenever their respective workings approach within a prescribed distance of the mutual boundary.
2. That the respective owners or lessees of adjoining mines should have the mutual right and duty to examine and copy such parts
a) of each other’s working plans
b) of any plans in their respective possession of abandoning workings, as lie within 100 yards of their mutual boundary.
3. That a statutory duty should be imposed upon the owners and the lessees of every working mine to ascertain whether any plans of abandoned workings within the area of such amine or within reasonable surrounding margin are in the possession of
a) the owners or lessees of the adjoining mineral areas
b) the Mines Department.
and if such plans are found to exist to examine the same and to make copies of such portion thereof as relates to the area of their own mine and to be a reasonable surrounding margin.
4. That the lessors of every mine should be bound to disclose and make available for copying to their lessees all plans in their possession of abandoned workings within the area let and a reasonable surrounding margin.
5. That the current working plan of every mine directed to be kept under the Coal Mines Act 1911, should be required to show, as far as is practicable, in addition to the boundaries of the mine, all workings, whether going or abandoned as ascertained under the foregoing rights and duties.
6. That the Department should vigorously continue their efforts by transmission either voluntarily as complete a recovery as possible of all plans or copies of plans of workings abandoned before the Act of 1872 came into operation.
7. That the plans of all abandoned workings received by the Department by transmission either voluntarily or under the statute should be registered, catalogued and classified geologically as to be readily accessible.
8. That access to such plans in the hands of the Department should be available immediately after deposit not only to all persons upon whom a statutory duty of inspections may be imposed in terms of my preceding recommendations but also to give persons who can satisfy the Department that they have a legitimate interest to inspect them.
The recommendations ended the inquiry into the Montagu Colliery disaster.
REFERENCES
The Report on the causes and circumstances attending the explosion which occurred at Command document 2607.
Colliery Guardian, 3rd April 1925, p.830, May 7th-12th 1926, p.1087, 21st October 1927, p.727.
Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.
