EXHALL. Nuneaton, Staffordshire, 21st. September, 1815.

The colliery was the property of the Betnall and Warwickshire Mines and was about four and a half miles from Nuneaton. A fire was accidentally caused at the colliery by the upsetting of a paraffin torch lamp in a wheel pit at the mouth of the downcast shaft. The wooden box of rhone containing the haulage rope was ignited and also the wooden guides in the shaft. The smoke was carried down by the air current and circulated through the mine for a short time until it was short-circuited by the opening of separation doors near the bottom of the shaft.

Shortly after 2 a.m. a workman descended the shaft to oil some haulage wheels within a few yards of the surface. He had with him a paraffin torch which he dropped onto the woodwork. The draft quickly took the flames into the haulage which was burnt through.

A telephone message to the pit bottom told all the men to leave the mine by way of the Blank Bank shaft which was about a mile away through the workings. The men immediately left their work leaving behind their clothes. Some had three miles to go to the shaft. There where 375 men in the pit and they helped each other unselfishly to get out and by 3 p.m. all the men were out but many were exhausted and were sent home to recover.

The fire was fought with appliances and the Coventry Fire Brigade quickly arrived and the fire was extinguished but dense volumes of smoke were driven into the workings. Fourteen men lost their lives.

Those who died were:

  • H. Cardey,
  • W.H. Smith,
  • J. Smith,
  • J. Sidwell,
  • F. Hackett jnr,
  • S. Beasley,
  • H. Stew,
  • R. Tallis,
  • C. Coat,
  • H. Tipple jnr,
  • S.J. Jackson,
  • E. Marsden,
  • C. Jennings
  • T. Tidman.

At the Inquest, the manager Mr. Jackson told the court that Charles Garner was told by the engineman to oil some bearings in the shaft. He went down carrying a naked light that was used at the surface. It did not occur to Mr. Jackson that the shaft was a dangerous place to use a naked light. Garner said that he put the light on a beam and it fell. He immediately went to the surface and down in the cage to try to get to back but he found that the guides, which were of pitch pine, were on fire. He went back to the surface and fought the fire and managed to get the flames out in about a quarter of an hour but the winding rope was broken through.

The jury brought in a verdict had men had died from pure accident and that the manager did all that was possible in the circumstances. They recommended that no naked lights were to be brought near any shaft.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report. Mr. Hugh Johnstone.
The Colliery Guardian, 24th September 1915 p. 625, 18th October p.789.

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

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