Durham Mining Museum - Colliery Disaster 1862

Date:	16th January 1862
Colliery:	New Hartley
Cause:	Miners entombed when engine beam broke and blocked only working shaft
Lives Lost:	204


Description

See also: Reminiscences of a Survivor of the 1862 disaster in the Archives section

One of the most appalling and heartrending catastrophes that has ever occurred in any country took place this morning in Hartley New Pit, near Seaton Delaval. Over the mouth of the pit was the beam of a pumping engine, the largest and most powerful in the North of England, the beam weighing about forty tons. The men were being drawn up in the cage by means of the winding machine when the beam of the engine broke and fell into the pit, meeting, in its downward course, the ascending cage with its human cargo, the enormous mass crushing everything in its way. Five were killed instantly, and three were afterwards extricated alive. The beam, it seemed, struck the top of the brattice with such violence that the whole of the massive wooden and iron framework was hurled to the bottom of the mine, thus cutting off all means of escape from the lower portion of the mine, in which were 215 men and boys buried alive. As soon as the nature of the accident became known, the pit mouth was soon crowded with noble fellows, who at once volunteered to enter the mine, and render every assistance in their power to rescue the living and recover the mangled remains of the dead. The viewer, Charles Carr, esq., and his assistant, Mr. Humble, were soon on the spot, along with Hugh Taylor, esq., of Backworth; T. E. Forster, esq., Newcastle; M. Dunn, esq., her majesty's inspector of mines ; Mr. Coulson, the master sinker of North Seaton Colliery; and many other able and scientific men connected with the coal trade. The shattered cage was, after herculean exertions, brought up smashed and torn, as if it had been manufactured of the weakest tin instead of the strongest wrought iron. The rims, about an inch thick, were shivered as if they had been the thinnest of tissue paper. And now commenced, in this district, six days of the most intense anxiety and harrowing suspense. Mr. Coulson and his heroic assistants laboured almost day and night in removing the debris, so as to form a communication with the men in the pit. Imagination in vain attempts to paint the scene which went on below: the agony of suspense they must have endured, the torturing terrors of their dim and stifling gallery, are all beyond conception; and then the pale, sorrowing watchers above, who thought of neither night nor day, nor of cold nor of privations, while waiting in dread anxiety for husbands, brothers, and children engulphed in that dark abyss. At last, on the 22nd, an opening was made into the workings, and one of the brave shift men, named William Adams, accompanied by two companions, entered the mine. They went along till they came to the bodies of two of the entombed men. Pushing their way along, at great danger to themselves, for the air was very bad, they found more bodies strewn in all directions. In all the ghastly company not one spark of precious life remained. On the body of Amour, the back-overman, was found, written in pencil on a torn newspaper, in a straggling handwriting, the following memorandum :-

"Friday afternoon, at half-past two.
"Edward Armstrong, Thomas Gledston, John Hardy, Thomas Bell, and others, took extremely ill. We also had a prayer-meeting at a quarter to two, when Tibbs, Henry Sharp, J. Campbell, Henry Gibson and William Palmer. Tibbs exhorted us again, and Sharp also."

This memorandum, though brief and imperfect, shows, as on many other occasion of a similar nature, that the horrors of a death beyond imagination have been lightened by the only consolation man could have in such an hour, and that whilst the men were passing through the fiery furnace they had with them One greater than they, who alone could solace and console. This appalling catastrophe aroused the benevolent and charitable feelings of the country to an extent never paralleled in spontaneity and magnificence by any purely local calamity. Everywhere, from one end of the country to the other, in rural hamlets as well as crowded cities, a consoling sympathy with the destitute, and a substantial desire to alleviate their sufferings and provide for their necessities, was manifested. The queen also gave freely, and accompanied the gift with the expression of feelings, which, next to the relief of absolute destitution, are the most acceptable balm to the wounded and bleeding heart. The Common Council of the city of London laid aside its rules of action to give 100 guineas. The London Coal Exchange felt a personal interest in the matter, and promptly subscribed 1,000 guineas. The brokers in Mincing-lane and Lloyd's also made large contributions. In this district individual sympathy and well doing was all but universal, and each vied with the other in liberality. Public meetings were held in Newcastle, Tynemouth, Morpeth, Hexham, Blyth, and other places, with a promptitude which showed that the interest felt in the destitute condition of the bereaved population was not cold or conventional but heartfelt and cordial. These public manifestations of sympathy in this district were followed by others in London, Manchester, and other places, and a noble fund, worthy of a Christian nation, was raised for the objects of the general solicitude. On the 26th the last sad phase of this fearful tragedy was completed by the bodies being solemnly interred in the silent grave; and so great was the number of persons and vehicles composing the procession, that although Earsdon Church is four miles from New Hartley, the first rough hearse had arrived at the church before the last had left the colliery. The burial ground attached to the parish church at Earsdon was totally inadequate to the extraordinary requirements made upon it, and provision had consequently to be made outside the church-yard for nearly the whole of the bodies. The ground for the purpose was given by His Grace the Duke of Northumberland. After the bodies had been laid in the graves, there were sorrowing friends anxiously inquiring the exact spot at which were laid those for whom they mourned; and the tender flower and gloomy cypress, planted by the hand and watered with the tear of affection, will bloom there when the memory of those who sleep peacefully beneath shall have passed away from the earth.

Source:

Local Records or Historical Register of Remarkable Events by T. Fordyce, Published in 1867


Fatalities

Photograph(s) of the memorial for this disaster are shown in the Memorials section

Ainsley, John, aged 19

Alderton, William, aged 31

Allan, William, aged 36

Amour, James, aged 48

Amour, R., aged 14

Anderson, William, aged 17

Armstrong, Edward, aged 12

Armstrong, John, aged 10

Armstrong, John, aged 36

Atkinson, Abraham, aged 20

Bannan, William, aged 24

Bell, Mark, aged 23

Bell, Thomas, aged 23

Bell, Thomas, aged 13

Bennet, John, aged 25

Bewick, James, aged 34

Bewick, John, aged 32

Bewick, Robert, aged 30

Birtley, Samuel, aged 24

Blackburn, Samuel, aged 26

Broadfoot, John, aged 19

Brown, George, aged 31

Brown, Ralph, aged 15

Brown, Thomas, aged 25

Brown, William, aged 25

Burn, J., aged 52

Burn, T., aged 18

Campbell, James, aged 28

Carling, George, aged 27

Chambers, Clark, aged 19, son of Thomas B., Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Chambers, Thomas B., aged 55, father of Clark, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Cheetham, Alfred, aged 33

Clough, Henry, aged 47

Coal, T., aged 37

Coulson, John, aged 33

Coulson, Robert, aged 26

Cousins, John, aged 18

Cousins, P., aged 12

Coyle, J., aged 28

Cross, Philip, aged 59

Cross, Philip, aged 20

Davidson, John, aged 38

Davidson, William George, aged 11

Dawson, John, aged 12

Dawson, Thomas, aged 49

Dixon, Robert, aged 12

Dixon, William, aged 27

Dixon, William, aged 34

Douglas, John, aged 25

Duffy, James, aged 10

Duffy, Patrick, aged 34

Elliot, Alison (male), aged 29, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Elliott, Edward, aged 19

Fairbairn, George, aged 33

Fairbairn, William, aged 70

Ford, Henry, aged 32

Ford, John, aged 27

Ford, Peter, aged 12

Foster, John, aged 15

Foster, Joseph, aged 18

Fulton, George, aged 25

Gallagher, Duncan, aged 28

Gallagher, John, aged 32

Gibson, Henry, aged 18

Gledson, George, aged 41

Gledson, Thomas, aged 16

Gledson, Thomas, aged 36

Gledson, William, aged 43, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Gledson, William, aged 71

gleghorn, Oswald, aged 24

Glen, George, aged 12

Glen, James, aged 18

Glen, William, aged 14

Gormerly, Patrick, aged 25

Graham, Christopher, aged 27

Hall, George, aged 28

Hamelton, James, aged 12

Hamelton, James, aged 56

Hammel, P., aged 33

Harding, John, aged 15

Harrison, Thomas, aged 16

Hauxwell, Frank, aged 25

Hays, George, aged 41

Hepple, Thomas, aged 27

Hill, George, aged 31

Hill, Robert, aged 21

Hindmarch, George, aged 30

Hodge, John, aged 33

Houston, Andrew, aged 34

Howard, G., aged 20

Humble, Joseph, aged 27

Hunter, Henry, aged 13

Jack, Winship, aged 24, brother in law of Christopher, Jack and Thomas Wanless, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Johnson, Joseph, aged 41

Johnson, R., aged 42

Kennedy, William, aged 30

Laws, George, aged 23

Laws, Thomas, aged 33

Liddle, George, aged 16

Liddle, J., aged 16

Liddle, J., aged 11

Liddle, J., aged 15

Liddle, T., aged 41

Liddle, T., aged 18

Liddle, T., aged 18

Liddle, William, aged 17

Liddle, William, aged 40

Long, John, aged 15

Long, Robert, aged 17

Louce, W., aged 30

MacAuley, Thomas, aged 38

MacFarlane, W., aged 15

Manderson, Peter, aged 52, Buried: St. Nicholas, Cramlington

Mason, Hugh, aged 24

McClutchey, Richard, aged 24

McCrachen, William, aged 24

McKee, Adam, aged 24

McKee, John, aged 55

McMullon, Robert, aged 27

Miller, Walter, aged 43

Miller, William, aged 34

Morgan, Andrew, aged 44

Mullon, John, aged 36

Murley, R., aged 23

Murray, Michael, aged 26

Nesbit, Peter, aged 20

Nicholson, John, aged 14

Nicholson, Joseph, aged 21

Nicholson, Joshua, aged 52

North, Alexander, aged 12

North, George, aged 10

North, J., aged 14

North, Robert, aged 26

Oliver, James, aged 21

Oliver, John, aged 27

Oliver, Peter, aged 15

Oliver, William, aged 56

Oliver, William, aged 17

Ormston, J., aged 32

Palmer, William, aged 35

Pape, William, aged 14

Pearson, Thomas, aged 28

Randall, R., aged 33

Redpath, William, aged 24

Richardson, Alexander, aged 22

Riley, Hugh, aged 30

Robinson, Mathew, aged 30

Robinson, Thomas, aged 42

Robson, J., aged 12

Robson, R., aged 36

Ross, Thomas, aged 46

Rowley, Edward, aged 33

Rutherford, John, aged 25

Rutherford, Thomas, aged 32

Rutherford, William, aged 23

Scurfield, George, aged 52

Sebastian, Thomas, aged 19

Sharp, George, aged 49, father of Johnson and George, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Sharp, George, aged 15, son of George and brother of Johnson, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Sharp, Henry, aged 44, brother of Thomas C.

Sharp, Johnson, aged 13, son of George and brother of George, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Sharp, Thomas C., aged 48, brother of Henry

Sherlock, Patrick, aged 28

Skinner, C., aged 14

Small, P., aged 19

Smith, Francis, aged 33

Smith, William, aged 19

Softley, Edward, aged 17

Stainsby, E., aged 23

Stanley, William, aged 34

Taylor, Joseph, aged 38

Telford, William, aged 24

Ternent, George, aged 15

Ternent, John, aged 44

Ternent, W., aged 40

Terney, J., aged 14

Thirlwell, George, aged 27

Tibbs, William, aged 32

Tryer, James, aged 33

Veitch, John, aged 21

Wade, George, aged 31

Walker, Benjamin, aged 21

Walker, James, aged 16

Walker, William, aged 12

Walpool, Patrick, aged 30

Wanless, Christopher, aged 20, brother of John and Thomas, brother in law of Wanless Jack, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Wanless, John, aged 15, brother of Christopher and Thomas, brother in law of Wanless Jack, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Wanless, Thomas, aged 19, brother of Christopher and John, brother in law of Wanless Jack, Buried: St. Albans Churchyard, Earsdon

Watson, James, aged 38

Watson, John, aged 39

Watson, Joseph, aged 16

Watson, T., aged 30

Watson, T., aged 31

Weirs, Robert, aged 20

Weirs, Thomas, aged 40

White, William, aged 16

Wilkinson, J., aged 23

Wilson, G., aged 38

Wilson, George, aged 16

Wilson, William, aged 12

Wypher, David, aged 24

Youll, John, aged 28

Young, John, aged 25

Younger, Henry, aged 33

All names found

Youngest: 10 years old ; Oldest: 71 ; Average: 27

Those names marked with , have a web page providing individual details of the accident, the page may also include a photograph of the deceased. Click on the symbol next to the name to see the web page.


Poems

The Hartley Calamity
By Joseph Skipsey

The Hartley men are noble, and
Ye'll hear a tale of woe;
I'll tell the doom of the Hartley men -
The year of sixty two.

'Twas on the Thursday morning, on
The first month of the year,
When there befell the thing that well
May rend the heart to hear.

Ere chanticleer with music rare
Awakes the old homestead,
The Hartley men are up and off
To earn their daily bread.

On, on they toil; with heat they broil,
And streams of sweat still glue
The stour unto their skins, till they
Are black as the coal they hew.

Now to and fro the putters go,
The waggons to and fro,
And clang on clang the wheel and hoof
Ring in the mine below.

The din and strife of human life.
Awake in 'wall' and 'board',
When, lo! a shock is felt which makes
Each human heart-beat heard.

Each bosom thuds, as each his duds
He snatches and away,
And to the distant shaft he flees
With all the speed he may.

Each, all, they flee -- by two -- by three
They seek the shaft, to seek
An answer in each other's face,
To what they may not speak.

"Are we entombed?" they seem to ask,
For the shaft is closed, and no
Escape have they to God's bright day
From out the night below.

So stand in pain the Hartley men,
And o'er them speedily comes
The memory of home and all
That links us to our homes.

Despair at length renews their strength,
And they the shaft must clear,
And soon the sound of mall and pick,
Half drowns the voice of fear.

And hark! to the blow of the mal below
Do the sounds above reply?
Hurra, hurra, for the Hartley men,
For now their rescue's nigh.

Their rescue nigh? The sound of joy
And hope have ceased, and ere
A breath is drawn a rumble heard
Re-drives them to despair.

Together now behold them bow;
Their burden'd souls unload
In cries that never rise in vain
Unto the living God.

Whilst yet they kneel, again they fell
Their strength renewed -- again
The swing and the ring of the mall attests
The might of the Hartley men.

And hark! to the blow of the mall below,
Do sounds above reply?
Hurra, hurra, for the Hartley men,
For now their rescue's nigh.

But lo! yon light, erewhile so bright
No longer lights the scene;
A cloud of mist yon light has kiss'd
And shorn it of its sheen.

A cloud of mist yon light has kiss'd,
See! how long it steels,
Till one by one the lights are smote,
And deep the doom prevails.

"Oh, father, till the shaft is rid,
Close, close besides me keep;
My eyelids are together glued,
And I -- and I -- must sleep".

"Sleep, darling, sleep, and I will keep
Close by -- heigh-ho!" To keep
Himself awake the father strives --
But he -- he too -- must sleep.

"O, brother, till the shaft is rid,
Close, close besides me keep;
My eyelids are together glued,
And I -- and I -- must sleep."

Sleep, brother, sleep and I will keep
Close by -- heigh-ho! To keep
Half awake the brother strives --
But he -- he too must sleep.

"O mother, dear! wert, wert thou near
Whilst sleep!" And the orphan slept;
And all night long by the black pit heap
The mother a dumb watch kept

And fathers, and mothers, and sisters, and brothers,
The lover and the new-made bride --
A vigil kept for those who slept,
From eve to morning tide.

But they slept -- still -- in silence dread,
Two hundred old and young,
To awake when heaven and earth have sped
And the last dread trumpet rung.

Lines On The Death Of The Men And Boys At The New Hartley Pit
By John Gusthart

Where did the Miners Die?

It was not the battle field
Amid the din of war
Where men meets man in bloody strife,
And concurring legions are:
Where death doth stand with scythe in hand,
As man's relentless foe,
To spread the plain with heaps of slain,
And lay the mighty low.

Ah no! nor on the briney sea,
Where foaming bollows rise;
Until the ship, with living freight,
Is tossed to meet the skies.
Her timbers creak, the doom'd ones shriek,
But still the tempests roar;
Too weak to brave the angry wave,
She sinks to rise no more.

Ah no! not thus on land or sea,
The miners met with death;
But in that tomb their hands had form'd,
They breathed their lastest breath.
A fatal sleep did o'er them creep,
And close each mortal eye;
>From vaults of coal, each precious soul
Hath wing'd its flight on high.

No fever raged with wasting fire
To thin each manly form,
And leave at last a scanty share
To feed the hungry worm.
The blooming boy, his mother's joy --
Te youth of promise rare,
With manhood's fire -- and aged sire,
ALIVE -- were buried there.

No wife besides the husband stood,
With words of healing power;
Nor mother with angelic voice,
To soothe their dying hour;
But friend with friend, united, blend
their prayers, with dying breath;
And sire with son were clasp'd as one
In icy bonds of death.

Their grave has yielded up its charge,
The quick have found the dead;
TWICE buried -- NOW they rest in peace
Beneath a grassy bed.
The lonely tomb shall lose its gloom,
Their dust to life return,
When CHRIST to all, with solemn call,
PROCLAIMS THE RISING MORN.


Newspaper Articles

18 Jan 1862	Terrible Colliery Accident (The Times)
20 Jan 1862	The Dreadful Colliery Accident In Northumberland (The Times)
21 Jan 1862	The Catastrophe At Hartley Colliery (The Times)
22 Jan 1862	The Calamity In Northumberland (The Times)
23 Jan 1862	The Terrible Calamity In The Hartley Colliery (The Times)
23 Jan 1862	Letters to the Editor, Hartley Colliery (The Times)
24 Jan 1862	The Terrible Calamity In The Hartley Colliery (The Times)
25 Jan 1862	The Awful Calamity In New Hartley Colliery (The Times)
25 Jan 1862	Letters to the Editor, The Sufferers By The Accident At Hartley Pit (The Times)
27 Jan 1862	The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
28 Jan 1862	The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
28 Jan 1862	Letters to the Editor, Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
29 Jan 1862	The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
30 Jan 1862	The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
30 Jan 1862	The Sufferers By The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
31 Jan 1862	Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
31 Jan 1862	Hartley Colliery Catastrophe (The Times)
01 Feb 1862	The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
03 Feb 1862	The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
03 Feb 1862	The Hartley Disaster (The Times)
05 Feb 1862	The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
05 Feb 1862	Letters to the Editor, The Hartley Disaster (The Times)
06 Feb 1862	The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
06 Feb 1862	Letters to the Editor, Accidents In Coal Mines (The Times)
06 Feb 1862	The Hartley Colliery Disaster (The Times)
07 Feb 1862	The Hartley Colliery Accident (The Times)
12 Feb 1862	Comment (The Times)
24 Mar 1862	Letters to the Editor (The Times)
27 May 1862	The Hartley Colliery Catastrophe (The Times)
03 Feb 1863	Letters to the Editor, The Hartley Colliery Fund (The Times)
07 Feb 1863	Letters to the Editor, The Hartley Colliery Relief Fund (The Times)
07 Feb 1863	Letters to the Editor (The Times)
27 Apr 1880	Hartley Colliery Accident Fund (The Times)


Further Reading

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

Return Return to Top



Mail: Webmaster	Back	Home	Crown copyright material is reproduced under Class Licence Number C01W0000177 with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Copyright © 1999-2008 by The Durham Mining Museum and its contributors Registered Charity No: 1110608 Page last updated: 08 Aug 2008	Search	Print