Newbury Colliery Explosion – Westbury – 1869

NEWBURY. Westbury, Somersetshire, 22nd. October, 1869.

The colliery was the property of the Westbury Iron Company and was about six miles from Frome in the Mendip Hills of Somerset and an explosion claimed seven lives. The disaster took place on the “Mackintosh” side of the pit.

The ventilation of the pit was provided by a furnace and the air went down the Newbury downcast shaft, straggled and struggled through narrow roadways and made its way to the surface up the Mackintosh shaft and the air travelled about 800 yards underground. At the time of the explosion, there were “branches” or stone drifts being made and no coal was got near the bottom of the staple. In the colliery as a whole, there was not much coal getting but the coal was got at the end of a very long journey and the air had to travel through very narrow roads for many hundreds of yards.

At the time, the men were descending for the day’s work but not all had gone down. The first indication of the accident was a very loud report which was heard miles away and smoke and dust came from the upcast shaft. Many persons rushed to the pit including wives and children.

Mr. Baker, the bailiff of the pit, with Mr. Coles, the lamp man, at once descended the, downcast shaft. When they reached the bottom, they found an explosion had occurred and going along the main level from the furnace they came across the body of an behind a pillar that had just started work and there was every indication that the gas had ignited there. There were six or seven men quite dead who were fearfully burnt. One had been blown into the sump hole from the level. Two of the unfortunate men had just got out of the cage when the blast hit them and they were hurled a considerable distance. The bodies were removed to the surface and agonised scenes took place as relatives recognised their loved ones.

Those who died were:

• John Coles aged 50 years left a wife and three children,
• James Button aged 40 years who left a wife and eight children,
• Arthur Button aged 22 years left a wife and child,
• James Button aged 14 years,
• George Plummer,
• William Edwards aged 20 years,
• Farnham Gunning aged 43 years left a wife and five children,
• John Plummer,
• James Francis.

Those who were injured were:

• John Button, son of James who was badly burned,
• Eli Plummer who was burnt and had a broken thigh,
• William Hancock,
• An unnamed man.

In the burial register for Coleford, the vicar at the time noted “these seven men and four others were killed by an explosion at Newbury 22 October 1869”. The names of those buried were William Edwards aged 19, Arthur Button aged 24, James Button aged 40, James Button aged 14, and James Francis aged 20 – all buried on 26th October. John Button aged 42 was buried on 29th October and William Hancock was buried on 31st October.

There was no fund for the relief of the sufferers and the colliery owners paid for the funerals of the victims.

The inquest was opened on Saturday at the Anchor Inn, Coleford before Mr. Wytrants M. D. Coroner for the northeast division of the County of Somerset.

John Steeds, miner, said:

I had just gone down the pit when I heard the explosion and I went to the shaft as quickly as possible. I called out but got no answer and I got a light at the furnace when a man came up behind me. We found young George Plummer burnt and almost dead as were Button and Hancock. James Button, fireman and James Francis were dead.

Of the twelve men who went down the pit that morning, eleven were injured and of those, six lost their lives. Some were brought out of the pit and died shortly afterwards and some lingered many days before they passed away suffering terribly from burns, contusions and the effects of the afterdamp and from the amount of dust blown up.

The Inspector commented:

Pulverent matter is a serious import to the coal miner at all times, even in the absence of an explosion, and under the most favourable conditions of good management it affects his digestive organs seriously it enters his lungs and too often becomes the nucleus of disease. Professor Tyndale has shown by a beam of light what we inhale on the surface, but that is nothing to the mass of organic and inorganic particles met within colliery roads and working places. By explosive action, these become an actual proportion of the underground atmosphere, and the result is too often the most painful suffering and death.

Mr. Brough went down the pit and in his opinion, the explosion originated in Gunning’s place where he found the coalface was about seven feet wide and eighteen feet beyond the end of the brattice and he was informed by Hamblin, the under bailiff, that before the disaster the brattice cloth was thirteen feet back from the face and that the explosion had stripped off the other five feet. He found some gas but not much and at the inquiry several witnesses stated that there was gas present before the explosion

Besides Gunning’s place, there was another place further down where Curtis worked and again the inspector found gas in this place. The first general rule was not obeyed and the Inspector heard evidence from several witnesses that supported this view.

The Inspector commented that certain rules had been neglected and that if they had been obeyed, the lives may have been saved. The pit was only examined on Mondays and if the pit had been examined on the morning of the explosion the disaster might have been avoided.

As a result of the evidence, the jury brought in a verdict of manslaughter against William Baker, Abraham Hamblin and John Bainton. They were committed to appearing at the Somerset Assizes at Taunton.

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report, 1869. Mr. Lionel Brough.
The Colliery Guardian, 29th. October 1869, p.425.
Nuneaton Advertiser 30th October 1869

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