Old Bradley Colliery Inrush – Bilston – 1862

OLD BRADLEY. Bilston, Staffordshire. 30th. May, 1862.

The colliery was the property of Mr. G.B. Thornycroft and seven men lost their lives by an inundation from the Thick Coal workings. The Ten Yard Seam had been worked up to a few months before the accident but water had stopped the operations and pumping was found to be inadequate to clear the water. The workings had been carried on by way of the No.23 shaft but to try to drain them, a headway had been driven from another shaft, the No.7 in the Gubbin Ironstone Measure which lay below the Thick Coal. The level was intended to intersect the headways and the “Thick Coal” to drain the water away. Up to the time of the accident the level had been driven 103 yards at an inclination of about 1 in 19 from the No.7 shaft to within about three or four feet of the bottom of the Thick Coal. A loud rush of water was heard at the surface, the scaffold at the entrance to the level was swept away and the shaft filled with gas which was swept before the water from the workings.

News of the accident reached the Inspector, Mr. Baker, at 5 p.m. and he was at the colliery by 7 p.m. where he found two large pumping engines at work to try to clear the mine. The pump had a 16-inch cylinder with a stroke of six feet and was working at 10 strokes per minute and there was a 10-inch pump with a five and half foot stroke working at 14 strokes per minute. These pumps had cleared most of the water from the engine pit shaft and two bodies had been recovered. Mr. Baker went down the pit and at the pit bottom found a search going on for the missing men. Progress was limited as water from the upper workings was pouring into the sump.

The Inspector returned to the surface and went to the No.7 shaft and gave orders for the band chains to be lengthened so that the bottom could be reached with the hope of finding the other bodies. It was found too dangerous to proceed below the level at which the accident occurred since the sides of the shaft walling had almost been totally destroyed by the influx of water. Steps were taken to re-wall the shaft and this work was carried on by relays of men working during the night when there was very heavy rain falling. The work went on until Sunday by which time all the bodies had been removed from the mine. The last body was found in the sump of the engine pit. During the whole of the operations, Captain Thornycroft remained at the pit head and descended the pit with Mr. Baker and others to make an examination.

Those who lost their lives were:

• T. Dinning aged 48 years, a deputy,
• J. Wilkes aged 38 years, a miner,
• C. Deakin, aged 22 years, a miner,
• S. Speed, aged 20 years, a miner,
• J. Dunning, aged 12 years,
• F. Cound, aged 15 years,
• W. Schofield, aged 15 years.

As a result of the examination made by Mr. Baker, Mr. Smallman, the consulting engineer with the firm and others, Mr. Baker said:

When I found it practicable to examine the level, the cause of this sad accident was rendered perfectly clear. Just above the level at the end, and within four feet of the roof, were gate-roads in the “thick coal” and the water having lain in these had suddenly burst into the level through an opening it made in the roof and thus swept all in it into the shaft.

Mr. Baker also tried to get into the gate-roads in the “thick coal” which the water had filled to a depth of five to six feet but he could get only about 42 yards because of the remaining water.

At the inquiry into the disaster before the Coroner, it was shown that the workings were under the control of Mr. John Harvey, the colliery manager whose son surveyed the pit under the direction of his father. Mr Smallman, as the general consulting engineer to the firm, had visited the colliery about five weeks before the accident and told Mr. Harvey to be very cautious.

On the day before the accident, the younger Harvey had latched, (surveyed) the workings and entered his latchings on a plan of the thick coal workings. They were looking at ways to drain out the water from the workings and Harvey snr. was of the opinion that the level had reached only to within 15 or 16 yards of the water in the thick coal.

At the inquiry, Mr. Harvey stated that he had been trying to get into the thick coal workings for some time but he could not on account of the damp. In the past, he had found that the water in the workings had always run off into the goaves when it reached a certain height.

On the day of the disaster, Mr. Harvey went down the pit with the chain-master and the doggy, who was killed. He told the doggy not to drive the level any further but to start bricking the part that already been excavated and the boring rods were to be used. The butty did not hear this as he was out of earshot. There was evidence to show that the charter-master was ignorant of these instructions and it was certain that the doggy did not act on the instructions immediately and about five inches of the roof was brought down by blasting that evening.

It was agreed by all parties at the inquest that the boring rods had not been used and that if they had, according to the 15th. General Rule, the disaster might have been avoided and the jury returned the following verdict:

The deaths of the seven deceased persons were caused by a rush of water into the pit in which they were working, occasioned by the neglect of John Harvey, senior but the jury do not consider the evidence sufficient to incriminate him.

A few days after the inquest John Harvey was dismissed as the colliery manager but was employed at the colliery in another capacity.

Mr. Baker thought that there was a case to prosecute Harvey for a breach of the 15th. General Rule. This stated:

That sufficient boreholes shall be kept in advance, and if necessary, on both sides, to prevent inundations in every working place likely to contain a dangerous accumulation of water.

A summons was issued and the case was heard before William Partridge, stipendiary magistrate, on the 24th September. Mr. Thomas Bolton, solicitor of Wolverhampton appeared for the prosecution and James Motteram of the Oxford circuit for the defence. After a long hearing the magistrate said:

This was most important case, and if it had been proved to his satisfaction, it was one in which he should have inflicted the very highest penalty, namely £20. The Government Inspector had done his duty in bringing these proceedings, because it was important to bring all cases of negligence on the part of men having the care of mines before the magistrates.

It appeared to the magistrate that the case was broken and that there was no evidence whatever to show that there was any reasonable cause to suspect that there was any dangerous accumulation of water and the case was dismissed and in his final remarks Mr. Partridge said:

In all cases of this class boring rods ought, as a precaution, to be constantly used. If in this case they had been used, the lamentable accident would not have happened.

REFERENCES
The Colliery Guardian, 26th April 1862. p.329.
The Mines Inspectors Report 1862. Mr. Baker.

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