Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	30th June 1817
Colliery:	Harraton, Row Pit
Cause:	Explosion
Lives Lost:	38

About eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the carburetted hydrogen gas in the Row pit, at Harraton colliery, on the river Wear, unfortunately ignited, when thirty-eight men and boys lost their lives. It was one of the most violent explosions which had happened for years; corves, trams, and several utensils used at the bottom of the shaft (82 fathoms in depth) being blown into the air, together with the bodies of two of the unfortunate workmen, one with the head off, and the other cut in two in the middle. All the sufferers, except one from Fatfield, belonged to New Painsher, and were buried there on Wednesday, July 2nd. Amongst them were ten belonging to one family, of the name of Hills, viz, the grandfather, his two sons, and seven grandsons. This dreadful accident was caused entirely by the perverse obstinacy of a young man, named John Moody, one of the hewers, who, in defiance of the orders of the overman, refused to use Sir H. Davy's lamp, and lighted a candle, which was twice put out by the workmen whom he was to relieve, but he re-lighted it by unscrewing the lamp, and thus sacrificed his own life, and the lives of his companions. But the painful narrative does not close here: on Wednesday afternoon, some of the workmen went into the Nova Scotia pit, of the same colliery, to repair some part of the shaft which had been injured by the explosion of the Row pit, and not returning in time, another party of men went down to seek them, but were obliged to return without effecting their object, being unable to proceed on account of the great quantity of choke damp which had entered the workings, supposed from the Row pit subsequent to the explosion. The eight workmen who had first gone down were obliged, therefore, to be left to their fate. Their bodies were got out on the following day, six of whom were quite dead; two were still alive, with little hopes of recovery.

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.

	Allen, James, aged 15, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Allen, Ralph, aged 18, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Allen, Robert, aged 12, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Baker, Edward, aged 12, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Baker, Thomas, aged 24, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Browell, Ralph, aged 9, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Browell, William, aged 16, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Browell, William, aged 5, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Chisholm, Thomas, aged 21, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Cowey, John, aged 10, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Dickinson, Joseph, aged 12, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Emery, John, aged 15, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Gallilee, Thoms, aged 15, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Gallilee, William, aged 24, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Grundy, Thomas, aged 55, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hardy, William, aged 22, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, George, aged 8, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, George, aged 12, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, John, aged 38, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, Michael, aged 10, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, Michael, aged 62, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, Michael, aged 15, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, Pearson, aged 24, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, Robert, aged 74, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, Robert, aged 11, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Hill, Thomas, aged 9, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Jobling, Ralph, aged 10, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Moody, John, aged 21, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Royally, Job, aged 17, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Royally, John, aged 10, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Short, Alexander, aged 18, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Short, John, aged 11, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Short, Ralph, aged 9, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Stephenson, George, aged 19, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Stephenson, James, aged 16, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Taylor, John, aged 23, of New Penshaw, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Wardle, John, aged 29, of New Penshaw, his son (Thomas) was killed at Seaton Delaval Colliery in 1847, Buried: All Saints Churchyard, Penshaw on 2nd July 1817
	Wheatly, John, aged 48, of Fatfield, Buried: St. Mary and St. Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street on 2nd July 1817
	All names found
	Youngest: 5 years old ; Oldest: 74 ; Average: 20

05 Jul 1817

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