30^th January 1931

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Pit Disaster

An Explosion At Whitehaven

Thirty-Five Men Missing

From Our Correspondent

Whitehaven, Jan. 30 (1.15 a.m.)

It is feared that 35 miners have been lost in a disastrous explosion, which occurred in the Whitehaven Colliery Company's Haig Pit here last night. The explosion occurred about 9.30 in the No. 3 North District, two miles away from the shaft and under the sea, quite close to where the explosion three years ago occurred, in which 13 mining officials lost their lives. So great was the force of the explosion last night that one of the brick stoppings cutting off the area of the previous explosion was blown away.

Doctors, nurses, and ambulance men hurried to the scene, and within half an hour about 2,000 persons, including many women and children, were gathered at the pit head. A local doctor went down the shaft and examined 10 men, seven of whom he pronounced to be dead. He was unable to proceed to the workings on account of the after-damp.

Rescue parties were sent down into the Haig Pit and also into the Wellington Pit, which gives access to the affected workings. At midnight five bodies had been brought to the surface. They were those of :—

Jack Holliday, of Parton ;

Scott, of Whitehaven ;

Wilkinson, of Whitehaven ;

McCartney, of Whitehaven ;

Gainford, aged 17, of Arrowthwaite.

Hurried calls for emergency stopping material was sent to the other pits of the Whitehaven Colliery Company, and rescue parties came from as far away as Clifton, 12 miles distant. The Chief Constable of Cumberland and Westmorland left Penrith for Whitehaven about 10 o'clock.

The afternoon shift included about 200 men, and they had gone down before the disaster occurred. It is thought that about 50 men were working in the No. 3 North District when the explosion occurred.

In order to obviate a possible panic in the town the usual signal siren, which indicates an accident in a pit, was not sounded, but the news became known with extraordinary rapidity.

In June, 1927, the Prince of Wales visited the Haig Pit and went down the shaft. Below, he entered an ordinary iron pit tram, and was pushed and hauled a mile under the sea to the coal face, where he handled a drill. At the time of his visit, it was stated that the workings of the Haig pit extended for two and a half miles under the sea, and royalties had been acquired for working up to 10 miles.

Previous Disasters

The following is a list of some of the principal colliery disasters in this country since the beginning of the century :—

Year	Colliery	County	Killed
1901	Universal	Glamorgan	81
1905	National	Glamorgan	119
1908	Maypole	Lancs	75
1909	West Stanley	Durham	168
1910	Whitehaven, Wellington Pit	Cumberland	136
1910	Hulton No. 3 Bank Pit	Lancs	344
1912	Cadeby Main	Yorkshire	88
1913	Senghenydd	Glamorgan	439
1918	Podmore Hall, Minnie Pit	Staffs	155
1922	Whitehaven, Haig Pit	Cumberland	39
1923	Redding No. 23	Stirling	40
1925	Montague Main	Northumb'd	38
1927	Marine No. 1, Cwm	Monmouth	52

All the disasters mentioned above were caused by explosions except those of 1923 and 1925, each of which was due to an inrush of water.