Brownhills Colliery Fire – Brownhills – 1861

BROWNHILLS. Brownhills, Staffordshire. 9th. January, 1861.

The colliery was near Walsall and owned by William Harrison. Four men and two boys had gone down the Red Pit, which was a downcast shaft, the previous night, to work in one of the upper seams. At about 3 a.m. the engine-tenter received a signal to lower the cage, which he did. He waited for a few minutes for the next signal but this was not received and he drew the cage up and found it was empty. he noticed a large volume of smoke coming from the shaft and he raised the alarm and went for the help of some men who lived on the colliery site. They found that they were unable to descend because of the density and volume of smoke that was coming out of the shaft and they went to the upcast shaft called the Meadow Pit which was nearly half a mile away. The managed with difficulty to descend and found the four men and two boys lying dead near the Red Pit. They had left their working places in the gate-road, which was about 500 yards from the shaft, probably on discovering the smoke.

On investigation, it was found that the solid coal was on fire in the airway in the lower seam of an adjoining pit which was worked by the same engine. The airway in which the fire was burning was used to ventilate the sump of the Red Pit shaft under the scaffold. The smoke from the fire travelled wit the air into the sump and rose through the scaffold when it met the downcast air and was carried into the shallow coal workings where the men were at work. It carried on to the Meadow Pit but as the temperature increased in the downcast shaft, the ventilation was reversed, with cold air coming down the Red Pit. The effect of this was to bring the smoke and fumes to the red Pit shaft. So dense was the smoke that the timbers and the headways were blackened with a coating of soot. Six horses we also suffocated in their stables.

All the victims were suffocated by smoke from a fire which originated in the airway to the Deep Coal workings of an adjoining pit.

Those who lost their lives were:

• James Cooper aged 26 years.
• John Cooper aged 30 years.
• Charles Coldrake aged 41 years.
• Emmanuel Millington aged 14 years.
• Thomas Craddock aged 37 years
• Levi Craddock aged 11 years.

It emerged that there was no satisfactory explanation of the outbreak of the fire in the airway. The men changed over shift at 10 p.m. the preceding night in the deep workings where the fire was afterwards discovered but there was no indication of fire at that time. A boy was sent out of the workings during the night. He stated that he saw no fire but he did stick his candle on the side of the gate road near the mouth of the airway. He denied going further down and having caused the coal to light. The coal was, however, found to be on fire half an hour after he had been to the stables.

It was supposed that the candle had fallen over and ignited some chaff, chips and small dry coal and dust which had accumulated at the mouth of the airway and then set fire to the solid coal. Some of the jury were of the opinion that the boy had made the fire for his own amusement. He denied this and there was no proof that this was the case. The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death.”

After the verdict it was stated that a collection for the bereaved families and 16/6d was collected.

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report, 1861. Mr. Baker.
The Colliery Guardian, 19th January 1861. p.41.
The Birmingham Daily Post.

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