DONNINGTON WOOD. Lilleshall, Shropshire. 11th. September, 1875.

The colliery was the property of the Lilleshall Company and Mr. C. Greene was the manager of the colliery. At the inquiry, the first witness was a sinker named James Hancock who was repairing the pit on the day of the accident. The ventilation seemed perfect and there were no unusual smells. Thomas Hart also a sinker had gone round the workings and saw nothing unusual. Henry Guy, Chartermaster at the pit, had examined the pit thoroughly on the Friday before the disaster and found nothing untoward.

On the day of the accident, Guy saw the eleven who were killed go down the pit but, as he was otherwise engaged he did not hear any of the signals. James Hayward a collier at the pit thought that the smoke coming from the shaft was more than usual when the men descended. When no answer was received after the lowering of a horse into the mine there was a cry of “Fire” from the downcast shaft and Guy and other men went down the pit. The signalling apparatus was in perfect order but the men had been let down into a foul atmosphere which had overcome them.

They found that to reach the men, who were in the inset, a special roadway had to be made. A sinker, William Pitchford was the first to discover bodies. There were two and where they lay the air was good but there was some smoke in the atmosphere. At the inset, the air was so foul that it extinguished the lamps.

The men who died were*:

  • Edward Wallett,
  • John Tranter,
  • Joseph Marden,
  • John Jones,
  • Benjamin Davies,
  • William Onions,
  • John Farr,
  • William Jarrett,
  • Francis Cookson.

The inquest into the deaths of the eleven men was held at the George Hotel, St. George, Shropshire before Mr. Newhill, Coroner. John Torrington, the engineman at the colliery, thought that more smoke than usual was coming up the pit shaft on Saturday but he thought it came from fires lighted by the sinkers. There had been a 6 feet “tree” set near where the bodies were found and the Chartermaster knew that fires could start in the slack and from men and boys using candles.

The Chartermaster of the downcast shaft, Jabez Dorricott said that the workings there had always been good but the clod in the airways had recently fallen. About twenty-six years before he had known of a fire in the gob. Mr. S.B. Gilroy did not think that there had been an explosion but that the men had died from inhaling smoke that had been emitted from the coal where the roof had broken down in the airway or had escaped from old workings. The cause of the fire was spontaneous combustion and he thought that all possible human precautions had been taken and there as no one to blame for the accident.

The Coroner summed up and the jury brought in a verdict of “Accidental Death” and added a rider that:

They were of the opinion that the signal for the descent of the second band of men had not been given and that if it had the men might have been saved.

The Coroner then read a letter from Mr. Lloyd, the General Manager of the Lilleshall Company expressing their desire to adopt practical suggestions for the prevention of such lamentable accidents and also the concern of Earl Granville, the Chief Proprietor of the mine, at the nature of the catastrophe, sympathy for the bereaved widows and children and a wish by His Lordship to relieve the distress. The letter went on to say that a plan for raising funds had been submitted to the Earl for his approval.

* A researcher has suggested that these names might be from an earlier local incident ‘Brick Kiln Leasow 1864, Madeley shaft incident’. He has checked the records on the FreeBMD site and they all died in 1864 in Madeley That is ‘Edward Wallett, John Tranter, Joseph Marden, John Jones, Benjamin Davies, William Onions, John Farr, William Jarrett, Francis Cookson.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspector Report, 1875. Mr. Thomas Wynne.
Iron Bridge Gorge Museum Trust. Information Sheet 6.
Colliery Guardian, 17th. September, p.425, 24th. September, p.459.

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

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