Quarter Colliery Explosion – Denny – 1895

QUARTER. Denny, Stirlingshire. 26th. April, 1895.

The pit had been sunk about 30 years before the accident and the Blackband ironstone was worked first. The coal lay 30 fathoms below this and the pit was later sunk to the Bannockburn Main coal seam. From 1873-4 to 1879-80, the colliery worked both coal and ironstone and from 1878-80 it worked only coal. The coal was worked partly by longwall and partly by stoop and room. In the area of the explosion it was worked by the latter method and at the time of the accident 170 men were employed in the pit.

The downcast shaft was 145 fathoms deep to the main coal and the upcast shaft was sixty-seven and half fathoms deep and was provided with a fan, 12 feet in diameter which usually ran at 103 r.p.m. with a water gauge of one inch.

Up to five years before the disaster, the mine was worked with naked lights. In 1889 the Inspector wanted the mine to use safety lamps but this was resisted by the mine owners and under section 47 (4) of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, Mr. R.T. Moore was appointed as an independent arbiter and ordered the introduction of lamps. Since that date, Protector Marsaut Lamps had been used regularly. The lamps could not be opened without the flame being extinguished. After the disaster, all the men’s lamps were found to be in good order.

The men lost their lives in the dip workings of the New Dook. The air current passed down the New Dook and up the faces. Part of the current went through the old stoop waste to the rise of the horse level, partway up the airway through the longwall workings and along the working faces to the rise. a small portion passed between the stooped waste and the New Dook and joined the intake air going to the south level.

The haulage in the dip workings was done by an endless rope passing down the upper part of the Old Dook, down the north slope, up “The Slope” and New Dook to the pit bottom. All the empty hutches went down the Old Dook and the full ones up the New Dook. No work was being done in the new or Old Dooks and the return air from the extreme dip workings passed through these workings. The workings between the two dooks were dry and dusty as were the working places of the men who lost their lives and most of the roadways.

On the morning of the 26th April 1895, the usual examination of the pit was made by the firemen. About 170 men were at work when about 1 p.m., first one explosion took place in the New Dook section and then at an interval of from about half to three minutes, there was another explosion in that part of the mine. The twelve men working the workings below the Horse Level were killed and one man, Patrick Carr, who was working in “Martin’s” above the Horse Level, was killed by afterdamp. The other men in Martin’s workings escaped uninjured. The pony drawing the hutches along the horse level to the New Dook Haulage Road were alive when found by the exploring party but could not be got out alive.

Those who lost their lives were:

• Henry McGovern aged 32 years, drawer,
• John Busby aged 39 years, haulage contractor,
• Bernard Dunion aged 26 years, drawer,
• John McGovern aged 30 years, miner,
• John McMillan aged 30 years, miner,
• Peter Tully aged 27 years, bencher,
• Patrick Carr aged 24 years, miner,
• John Comrie aged 25 years, drawer,
• Peter Connoway aged 28 years, miner,
• Patrick Dunion aged 30 years, miner,
• John Herron aged 24 years, miner,
• Robert Mitchell aged 40 years. Miner,
• John Nicol aged 40 years, fireman.

The inquiry into the disaster was conducted by Charles J. Guthrie, Advocate and J.M. Ronaldson, H.M. Inspector of Mines. It appeared that many of the victims were carrying articles in their clothing that contravened the Mines Regulation Act.

Partick Carr was carrying a tin matchbox half full of matches and a contrivance for opening lamps. John Comrie had a split nail which could have been used to open lamps. Peter Conway had seven matches and a split key for opening lamps. Patrick Dunion had a split nail for opening lamps. John Herron had a tin box half full of matches. Robert Mitchell had a clay pipe and a piece of tobacco. John Nichol had a wooden pipe, a piece of tobacco, one match and a box half full of matches. Henry McGovern had been convicted at Stirling on 14th June 1892 for having a pipe in his possession and was fined 20 shillings.

There was no doubt that the immediate cause of the disaster was the ignition of firedamp by a naked light. The place where the first and the second explosion occurred was not positively identified but it was thought to be in either the road where McMillan and the two McGovern’s worked or in the roadway where Conway and Herron worked. There was only a screen to separate the intake air at the foot of the New Dook and the return air from the workings to the extreme dip. An accumulation of firedamp had been found on the 29th and 10th April near the screen and it transpired that none of the officials had been to the dip of the screen for a considerable time before the explosion. It was possible that gas cold leak through the screen and a naked light close to the screen would have ignited it. It was thought, since Henry McGovern’s body was found close by, that he had ignited a match close to the screen and so ignited the gas.

Whether there was sufficient ventilation was a matter that the inquiry looked into. There was enough air going tin to the mine from the downcast shaft. It was suggested that there was so much air lost that there was not enough reaching the workings. The stoppings were made of dirt and it was suggested that these should have been tighter and made of brick.

The inquiry also connected coal dust wit the explosion but. This was disputed by the skilled witnesses for the mine owners as well as the officials of the mine. The first explosion may have resulted from gas ignited by a naked light while the second could have been of coal dust raised by the first explosion.

The inquiry came to the following conclusion:

In our opinion the explosion resulting in the loss of thirteen lives was caused by the ignition of an accumulation or an outburst of gas coming in contact with a naked light (other than an opened safety lamp) which had been unlawfully kindled, either by the fireman John Nicol, or by one of the miners who was killed. In our opinion, the intensity of the explosion was aggravated and its area extended by the ignition of coal dust.

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report.
Report to the Right Honourable The Secretary of State for The Home Department by Charles J. Guthrie, Esq., Advocate and J.M. Ronaldson, Esq., one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Mines on the circumstances attending an explosion which occurred in the Quarter Colliery, Denny, Stirlingshire on the 26th April 1895.
The Colliery Guardian, 3rd May 1895, p. 843.

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