Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	3rd May 1815
Colliery:	Heaton Main
Cause:	Inrush of water from old workings
Lives Lost:	75

A dreadful catastrophe occurred at Heaton main colliery, near Newcastle, by the breaking in of a quantity of water from the old workings, to which the pitman had unhappily approximated too closely. The workings of the colliery at this time were in one of the lower seams, at a very great depth, having a considerable dip or inclination from one side to the other, the shafts being on the lower side. The upper and neighbouring seams had formerly been wrought as a colliery, under the name of Heaton Banks, by shafts distinct from the present workings, and which shafts when the colliery was given up, were covered over with boards and earth. In the course of time these old workings had become entirely filled with water. The miners were taking precautions at the time, it appears, to let off the expected influx of water by driving a drift in a direction to perforate the old workings near Heaton Burn. At four o'clock on the fatal morning, Mr. Miller, the resident or under-viewer, visited the men engaged in this operation, and a dripping of water from the roof being pointed out to him, he gave directions that the work should be squared up ; and said he would send in the borers to ascertain whether the water proceeded from the waste of the old collieries or not. In less than a quarter of an hour after, the water began to run more freely through the chink; and the two drifters, becoming rather alarmed, sent their boy to apprize two other men who were working near them, with the state of the mine, and to acquaint all the men in the pit with their danger. The youth, probably impelled by fear, made the best of his way to the shaft, and escaped. The two workmen first mentioned, had now quitted the face of the drift, and presently after, a frightful crash, accompanied by a violent gust of wind, which extinguished the candles, warned them that an immense torrent of water was rushing into the mine ; they fled precipitately towards the working-shaft, distant about a mile ; and as the water of course flowed first down the lowest level, reached it just in time to save their lives. The two men who were working near them, the boy just mentioned, and fifteen other men and boys who were on the rolly-way, were so fortunate as to make their escape, but not till the last was up to his waist in water. Every possibility of retreat to those left behind was now cut off ; and seventy five human beings, (forty-one men and thirty-four boys) including Mr. Miller, were shut up in the workings towards the rise of the colliery, either to perish by hunger, or to die for want of respirable air. The sufferers who thus found a living grave, left twenty-four widows and seventy-seven orphans, besides Mrs. Miller, and her eight children, to deplore their untimely fate. Exertions were immediately made to reach the spot where the men were supposed to be, from some other workings, but without success, as the shafts of the old workings were choaked up by the earth, &c. which covered their mouths when deprived of the support of the water, having fallen in, dragging after it many trees which had been planted in their vicinity. Attempts were made in front of Heaton-hall, to endeavour to reach the old workings through a shaft which had not fallen in, but these also were unavailing, on account of being filled with inflammable air. Three large engines (one of one hundred and thirty horse power) were incessantly employed in endeavouring to draw the water from the pit, but without effect, as the water in the shaft amounted at first to nineteen fathoms, but it subsequently gained upon them, from which it appeared that some internal reservoir had burst into the pit. At three o'clock on Thursday, it stood at thirty fathoms. During the night the water gained upon the engines, notwithstanding they discharged 1,200 gallons per minute. The water in the lowest shaft was plumbed early on the Friday morning, when it was found to be thirty-three fathoms. In the distance between the back of Heaton and Benton-bridge, seven of the shafts belonging to the workings of an old colliery on Heaton Banks, fell in, presenting most frightful chasms. Of many of these, the surface exhibited not the least vestige, nor was their existence known in the neighbourhood. The old colliery is said to have been discontinued on account of the influx of water, which was so great, that seven engines, of the construction of that day, could not get the better of it. The first steam-engine used in this part of the country was erected at Heaton, and most probably on this colliery. From various difficulties, the bodies of these unfortunate men were not arrived at until upwards of nine months from the time of the accident. On the 6th of January 1816, the first human body of the sufferers was brought to bank, in a state of great decay, but ascertained, by the neck cloth, to be that of William Scott, between 70 and 80 years of age, who attended one of the furnaces. Of a knife which the deceased had in his pocket, the haft only (of bone) was entire, the blade being entirely corroded by the mixture of the pyrites in the mine with the water. His watch was also nearly destroyed by the same cause. It may, however, afford some speculation to the curious, that the articles of linen on the deceased were quite fresh and uninjured, but those of woollen fabric entirely destroyed. In a few weeks afterwards, the remains of the rest of these unfortunate men were found in different situations in the workings of the pit. February 20th, thirty-nine of the bodies, forming a melancholy procession, were interred in trenches in the south-east corner of Wallsend church-yard. Many of the bodies, when found, were nearly naked, and all in a state of great decay. They appeared to have all perished by starvation. They had got into a part of the pit where the water did not reach them, and had been many weeks employed in endeavouring to work their way into an old pit, by which they might have escaped. They are supposed to have failed in their attempt by the want of food to support them, as every horse in the pit was eaten to the bone. The unfortunate men had a water mark fixed up, that they might observe if it fell. One man, who is supposed to have been set to watch it, was found dead at his post.

Source:

Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurrences Connected with the Counties of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northumberland and Durham by M.A. Richardson. Published in five volumes in 1844.

	Bainbridge, John, aged 42, Buried: Wallsend
	Brayson, Andrew, aged 40, Buried: Wallsend
	Campbell, Robert, aged 31, Buried: Wallsend
	Curtis, Jacob, aged 15, Buried: Wallsend
	Dawson, George, aged 36, Buried: Wallsend
	Dixon, Arthur (jnr), aged 26, Buried: Wallsend
	Dixon, Arthur (snr), aged 64, Buried: Wallsend
	Dixon, Henry, aged 40, Buried: Wallsend
	Dixon, William, aged 21, Buried: Wallsend
	Dodd, James (jnr), aged 16, Buried: Wallsend
	Dodd, James (snr), aged 40, Buried: Wallsend
	Dodd, Simon, aged 36, Buried: Wallsend
	Dodd, Thomas, aged 7, Buried: Wallsend
	Elliott, William, aged 7, Buried: Wallsend
	English, Robert, aged 36, Buried: Wallsend
	Frome, John, aged 21, Buried: Wallsend
	Gardner, Charles, aged 20, Buried: Wallsend
	Gardner, Jas., aged 24, Buried: Wallsend
	Gardner, Thomas, aged 17, Buried: Wallsend
	Gardner, William, aged 15, Buried: Wallsend
	Gibson, Edward, aged 82, Buried: Wallsend
	Gibson, John, aged 31, Buried: Wallsend
	Gibson, Matthew, aged 22
	Gibson, Nicholas, aged 18
	Gibson, Richard, aged 45, Buried: Wallsend
	Gordon, John, aged 19, Buried: Wallsend
	Gordon, Thomas, aged 15, Buried: Wallsend
	Graham, William (jnr), aged 7, Buried: Wallsend
	Gray, Christopher, aged 14, Buried: Wallsend
	Gray, Thomas, aged 12, Buried: Wallsend
	Green, William, Buried: Wallsend
	Hall, Ralph, aged 15, Buried: Wallsend
	Hall, William, aged 21, Buried: Wallsend
	Johnson, Matthew, aged 28, Buried: Wallsend
	King, William, aged 16, Buried: Wallsend
	Laws, George, aged 50, Buried: Wallsend
	Lumsdon, Thomas, aged 18, Buried: Wallsend
	Miller, Thomas, aged 16, Buried: Wallsend
	Mitchinson, Shipley, aged 42
	Muller, Nicholas, aged 15, Buried: Wallsend
	Newhill, John, aged 37, Buried: Wallsend
	Nicholson, Lancelot, aged 29, Buried: Wallsend
	Pratt, John, aged 10, Buried: Wallsend
	Reay, John, aged 26, Buried: Wallsend
	Redhead, John, aged 22, Buried: Wallsend
	Renwick, John, aged 25, Buried: Wallsend
	Renwick, William, aged 23, Buried: Wallsend
	Richardson, Robert, aged 64, Buried: Wallsend
	Robinson, John, Buried: Wallsend
	Robson, Edward, aged 34, Buried: Wallsend
	Scott, William, aged 21, Buried: Wallsend
	Southern, Anthony, aged 18, Buried: Wallsend
	Southern, Robert, aged 14, Buried: Wallsend
	Southern, William, aged 25, Buried: Wallsend
	Steel, George, aged 25, Buried: Wallsend
	Steel, Robert, aged 25, Buried: Wallsend
	Stokoe, Walter (jnr), aged 17, Buried: Wallsend
	Stokoe, Walter (snr), aged 42, Buried: Wallsend
	Thaw, George, aged 19, Buried: Wallsend
	Thaw, John, aged 50, Buried: Wallsend
	Thaw, William, aged 19, Buried: Wallsend
	Thompson, Thomas, aged 16, Buried: Wallsend
	Thompson, William, aged 21, Buried: Wallsend
	Unwin, David, aged 48, Buried: Wallsend
	Watson, John, aged 12, Buried: Wallsend
	Watson, John, aged 20, Buried: Wallsend
	Watson, Thomas, aged 10, Buried: Wallsend
	Widdrington, Henry, aged 20
	Widdrington, Ralph (jnr), aged 28
	Widdrington, Ralph (snr), aged 56
	Wilson, Michael, aged 15, Buried: Wallsend
	71 of 75 names found
	Youngest: 7 years old ; Oldest: 82 ; Average: 27
	Some of the names of mining fatalities on this page have been kindly provided by Ian Winstanley of the Coal Mining History Resource Centre and are marked with , further details may be obtained by contacting Ian by email at ian.winstanley@blueyonder.co.uk

30 May 1815

Heaton Colliery Sufferers (The Times)

• Great Pit Disasters, 1700 to present day by Helen and Baron Duckham, Published by David & Charles, 1973

 

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