Pumphouse Colliery Explosion – West Bromwich – 1835

PUMPHOUSE. Dudley Port, West Bromwich. Staffordshire. 2nd. November, 1835.

At the Majors colliery at Tipton an explosion was reported in which sixteen men were killed and five others burned. The colliery was the property of Sir Horace Paul and worked by two “butties” James and Thomas Barlow. The shaft was 280 yards deep with two works one 160 yards and one 120 yards from the bottom. The banksman at a neighbouring pit heard the explosion two miles away and it was described as “like the discharge of a cannon”. Smoke and burning coal were flung up the pit when 30 men and boys wee below. Thirteen were initially reported killed and eight badly burned. One man died going down the shaft in a rescue attempt. Three horses were also reported killed.

REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway. Vol.1, p.504.
Mining Journal. Vol.1 p.90.

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