The Scotswood Mine disaster

Official Report On The Causes

A report by Mr. H. P. Macmillan, K.C., on the causes and circumstances of an inrush of water which occurred at the Montagu Colliery, Scotswood, Northumberland, on March 30 of last year and caused the death of 36 persons has been published by H.M. Stationary Office (1s. 3d. n.).

The disaster was due to the breaking up, by the firing of two shots, of a projection of coal which formed part of the barrier between the workings in progress and the water accumulated in old disused workings beyond. The breaking up of the projection rendered the remaining partition so thin that it was no longer able to resist the pressure (estimated at about 80lb. per square inch) of the water behind, which burst through in overwhelming volume. Some of the victims were drowned, while others were apparently suffocated by blackdamp.

It was established at the inquiry that neither those concerned with the management of the pit nor any of the men working in it knew that old waterlogged workings were being approached, but, Mr. Macmillan points out, "the lamentable fact remains that the means of knowledge of the old workings were in existence at the time of the accident in the hands both of the lessors' mining engineers and of the lessees of the adjoining colliery." He concludes his report by making a series of recommendations, suggesting that there should be imposed by statute on owners or lessees a mutual duty to give notice to each other whenever their respective workings opposed within a prescribed distance of the boundary, and to ascertain whether plans of abandoned workings near their mines are in the possession of the owners or lessees of the adjoining mineral areas or of the Mines department, and also that owners and lessees of adjoining mines should have a mutual right and duty to examine and copy such parts (a) of each other's working plans, and (b) of any plans in their respective possession of abandoned workings as lie within 100 yards of their mutual boundary.