Disasters
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To be classified as a disaster, an accident or explosion at a mine had to claim at least ten lives. The Whitehaven coal field suffered many disasters and innumerable smaller accidents. It has been estimated that over 1200 men, women, and children have lost their lives while winning coal in the Whitehaven collieries.
Between 1880 and 1910, over 1000 fatalities occurred every year in British coal mines. An average of four miners killed and 517 injured every day. In 1910 the national fatality figure rose to 1818 killed. Of these, 501 died in explosions, 658 through falls of ground, and 286 through haulage accidents. There were two major disasters that year, an explosion of firedamp at Wellington Pit, Whitehaven, killed 136 men and boys, and an explosion of coal dust at Hulton, in Lancashire, killed 344.
The Wellington Pit disaster remains as Cumbria's worst mining accident. The most disastrous explosion in Europe occurred in Courrieres, France in 1906, when 1,100 men and 98 horses were killed, when a blown out shot ignited coal dust. The world's worst disaster occurred in 1942, in China. The Honkeiko Colliery coal dust explosion claimed 1,549 miners.
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Bodies being recovered from N0.4 shaft at Haig Pit and placed in the temporary mortuary below the Power House |
The Queen Mother's message of sympathy after the Wellington Pit Disaster 1910. |
A policeman guards Wellington Pit shaft to stop fellow miners risking their lives to save their 136 comrades trapped below. 1910. |
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Four major explosions occurred at Haig Pit during the life of the mine. They were :- |
Cumbria suffered two major disasters, both in Whitehaven. The Wellington Pit disaster killed 136 men and boys, while the William Pit Disaster in 1947, claimed 104 victims.
(Please click on a date for an account of each disaster)
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Although these explosions claimed many lives, they represent only a fraction of the accidents and explosions that have occurred in the Whitehaven mines. The local newspapers are filled with such reports throughout the 1800's and early 1900's. The death of two men may only have been eligible for a small article and the death of one man through a fall of ground, scarcely a mention.
Harrowing as these reports may be, they can do little to convey the full misery and suffering. The news that the families bread winner, or winners as was so often the case, had perished, must have only been the beginning of the suffering. The widow's pension of 2 shillings was considered high in 1839, but must have been hard stretched to raise a family. Even "Lame persons doing nothing" received 5 shillings a week in the 1802 payroll for the Howgill Colliery. Even without the frequent accidents, the conditions underground were horrendous. An account of a visit to William Pit in 1814 vividly describes the suffering of the young children and miners at the hands of the coal owners. |
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It would be unthinkable today to deliver mutilated remains in a straw filled cart or to take home the broken body of a child who was not expected to live through the night. These however, due to the high concentration of methane in Whitehaven mines, were regular occurrences.
The first Coal Mines Act of 1843 began to pave the way to safer pits. It contained only 5 regulations including the total prohibition of boys under ten, or female labour, working underground. It also appointed Official Inspectors of Mines (now the HM Inspectorate of Mines, part of the Health & Safety Executive). This legislation and further acts that were to follow gradually improved conditions and the safety of coal mines. This now means that British Coal Mines are amongst the safest in the world.
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