Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	19th November 1835
Colliery:	Burdon Main
Cause:	Explosion
Lives Lost:	11

The following distressing accident occurred at Burdon Main colliery, situated a little to the westward of North Shields, on the 19th of November, 1835. On the afternoon of that day (Thursday), a little after three o'clock, some of the workmen in the Low Main seam of the middle pit were alarmed by what they too truly knew to be an explosion of foul air in the adjoining workings, and on proceeding to the spot they found that, as a deputy named James Campbell, was going his usual rounds to see that everything was safe, an accumulation of foul air had taken fire at his candle and produced the melancholy accident by which eleven human beings were instantly deprived of existence. The mine, it appeared, from what transpired on the inquest, had always been so uncommonly free from foul air that the men invariably wrought with candles — a lamp never having been used in the workings. Unlike the generality of such accidents, the origin of the present explosion was soon discovered; it was found to have been caused by the negligence, or occasional absence of a boy named Arkley, only ten years of age, and who was one of the sufferers. This poor boy had neglected to close a door, which it was his sole business to keep shut, and which, even by standing open fifteen minutes, would occasion a sufficient accumulation of foul air to cause the explosion. The force of the blast had been so exceedingly powerful that nothing seemed to have been able to resist its progress. Some of the stoppings were blown down; the trap door above mentioned, together with the brick walling on each side of it, was likewise carried to a considerable distance; and even the props, which present very little resisting surface, were in several instances swept away. Three men, and eight young men and boys, fell victims to the scorching flame, or died from the effects of after-damp. Fortunately, when the explosion had proceeded to this extent, its ravages ceased; and on reaching the adjoining district, the good air speedily exhausted the desolating power of the blast, though the noise and the rushing wind which it occasioned soon indicated to the other miners what had happened. No time was lost in endeavouring to get at the poor sufferers; and at considerable risk from the after-damp, the whole of the bodies were in a short time removed. In the course of the investigation, before the coroner, that gentleman observed to Mr. Johnson of Willington, that there was one circumstance which had frequently occurred to him, and that was the impropriety of trusting these doors to such very young boys, when so very much depended — both of life and property — upon their care and attention, and enquired whether it would not be greatly to the advantage of coal-owners to employ men of thirty or forty years of age — men who knew what was committed to their charge — to take care of such doors, supposing even an extra sum was given to them for doing it. Mr. Johnson said it was a subject which had frequently engaged the attention of viewers and others having the management of coal-mines; that they had no means of bettering themselves. They had invariably found that boys from ten to fourteen years of age were far more tractable, attentive, and obedient than boys of a more advanced age. They had tried old men, and they found them worse than even the boys — not that they were wilfully negligent — but they lost their faculties and dozed away their time in sleep; and he did not think they could find a man of middle age who would undertake to fill such an office; there was not one about the colliery who would not think himself degraded in such a situation. The coroner thought is was a pity that they did not see more clearly what was for their own good. Verdict accidental death.

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.

	Arkley, Joseph, aged 10
	Athey, Richard
	Campbell, James
	Clark, George
	Coxon, John
	Hill, Ralph
	Pearson, Robert
	Pinkney, Thomas
	Robson, Samuel
	Whitfield, George
	Wood, James
	All names found
	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

 

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