The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-01-28 00:00:00

HARTLEY COLLIERY, AND ITS SAD
STORY.

It is almost impossible for the human mind
to conceive anything more horrible than the
fate of the two hundred and nineteen colliers
who were entombed alive in the Hartley Colliery,
kept without food for a period, as is now sup-
posed, for four days, and then suffocated by the
gnome of the mine, that terrible gas which from
first to last has made such havoc among the popu-
lation of our mining districts. On the evening
of Wednesday week these miners left their
cheerful homes, in the fulnesss of health, to
pursue their ordinary calling, and when their
laborious nocturnal work bad been completed,
and they were joyously waiting to be drawn up
to their wives and homes, horror of horrors!
the ponderous cast-iron beam of the pumping
engine snapt in twain, and twenty tone of iron
dashed down the shaft likes thunderbolt, causing
the instant death of five, destroying the brattioe
work of the shaft, and cutting off all commu-
nication of those who were six hundred feet below
the surface, with the outer world. How can we
picture the excitement and the agony at the pit's I
mouth on the accident becoming known; or how
describe the brave efforts made to rescue human
life I Day and night, at the imminent risk of
their lives, experienced miners laboured on to
rescue the sufferers entombed beneath, en-
couraged in their perilous toil by smith& of voices
at times below. "How touching the, scenes,"
says a contemporary, "depicted to ea by the re-
porters. The poor woman, with a child in her
arms, and worn with grief as though she had
suffered agony for weeks, instead of hours,
standing by, silently looking on, all the members
of her household, seven in number, among those
buried in the dark abyss'—this wife and mother
may serve as an epitome of the great misery
created by a great mining tragedy; and when
we read that, besides her husband and six sons,
'a boy whom they had brought up' was also in
the pit, we are drawn more closely to her, in
sympathy and reverence, by this not uncommon
evidence of the Christian virtues in her humble
order. Affecting, also, is the picture of the
prostrate bottle .maker from Seaton Sluice, whose
son and grandson, not being miners, had gone
into the workings through curiosity on the day
of the accident, and were there immured.
Lying on the pit heap, and covered with a white
sheet, he resisted all entreaties to quit the place,
where, in sad suspense, he awaited tidings of
their fate. Look at the following sketch :—On
the ground level, crowds of men, women, and
boys clustered round the brightly burning fixes.
Others huddled themselves together in the
cabins, or under any temporary shelter from the
piercing oold, that could be obtained. Here and
there were groups listening with bated breath to
the expression of opinion, or the statement of
fact given to them by some stalwart pitman,
come to bank.' Some people were to be seen
wherever work was proceeding, whether at the
gin or the crank; but most of all waited with
long-suffering 'patience at the mouth of the pit
on the ground level, where the workmen were
brought up from below, after two hours' labour,
or were lowered to commence work for a similar
period. Yet, as each of the brave fellows
alighted from his se inging seat on the rope, his
face told plainly that there was, as yet, no news
to cheer the hearts of Mends; and not a question
was asked them, and not a word was spoken, as
the crowd divided, and left a peonage for the wet
and dripping man to walk silently through to

their cabin. There were but few instances of
violent grief, but many a woman's face told sad,
though silent tales of Mental agony. One good
woman has waited in that cabin, ever since the
itocident occurred, with a stock of tea and coffee
and dry clothing, for her husband and son, as soon
as they should be brought to bank; and doubtless,
there are many instances of heroism that will
never be known, much less recorded." And
while these sad heartrending scenes were to be
witnessed above, what must have been the feel-
ings of those hapless men and boys sealed up
irrevocably deep in the bowels of the earth—
buried alive, and doomed in darkness to a linger-
ing death by starvation, or, at best, to be within
a briefer period deprived of life by suffocation 1
Who can tell the agonies eadured in that living
tomb? No im 'nation can conceive it—no pen
give it an ad te expression. To realise it in
any degree ust descend into that sealed-up
mine, and picture it there in the com-
panitmehip sufferers themselves. Although,
perhaps, una to comprehend the nature of the
accident that had taken place, they would
speedily discover from the accumulation of the
fetid water in the seam where they were, that their
only chance of safety lay by going back and
passing through the atone drift or sloping road-
way, and thence ascend the staple—an upright
shaft—by means of a ladder, which communi-
cated with the middle workings; anticipating,
no doubt, that a mode of escape would be open
to them through the furnace drift into the main
shaft. It was only on reaching this point that
they would discover how effectually they were
cut off from all communication with the world
above. But even here, the ghastly form of
mortal danger would b.ut slowly present itself to
their imaginations. Imprisoned as they were—
they knew not how—the grim messenger which
stared them in the face did not paralyse their
energies, or deaden within them the instincts of
self-preservation which ceases to operate only
with life itself. They had tools, and with these
they set to work upon the obstructions in the
shafts, attempting to hew away the debris of
timber that shut them all in, and to make a way
of escape for themselves. Their first efforts
were cheered by the sounds of their friends
above trying to get down to them, and the
signal, by means of which the latter iWathpted
to communicate with the entombed en, were
by these at first cheerfully returned. How their
minds must have alternated between hope and
fear as the weary days and nights days
and nights above, but one long night down
in the living grave—wore on, and the pangs
of hunger deepened into the deaths of
the first victims who succumbed; then the
general despair, to be followed finally by
resignation to the death that was inevitable.
The state in which the bodies were found shows
the fatherly, fraternal, and filial affection and
tenderness that abounded among the dying
coal miners. The brief description by the ex-
plorers, on their entrance into the seam is most
affecting. They went all through the workings
aud found no living man—nothing but a hecatomb
of dead bodies—families lying in groups—
children in the arms of their fathers—brothers
locked in the embrace of brothers. Most of them
looked placid, as if asleep; but higher up some
tall stout men seem to have died hard. To
satisfy the cravings of hunger, they emptied the
corn bins. A pony was lying dead among the
men, but untouched. The picture is too painful
to dwell on. It was a scene to move the most
callous heart.

The calamity is the more dreadful, since it
appears to have arisen from sheer neglect, and
that parsimony which holds men's lives of lees
moment than the acquisition of money. To
perceive that these remarks are not overstrained,
we have only to consider the mode in which the
Hartley pit is constructed. The shaft—the scene
of this deplorable occurrence—runs through
three seams of coal, the lowest level being 600
feet from the surface. The upper seam is about
180 feet down; and the middle seam about 360
feet. The two upper seams have been exhausted,
and the coal has latterly been obtained from the
lower seam. Between the lower and middle
seams there was a "staple," or air way, and
there was a similar "staple" from the upper
seam to the surface, but a like provision had not
been made between the middle seam and the
upper seam. The workmen in the lower seam,
when they found the main shaft blocked up,
ascended the staple to the second seam, and had
there been a staple to the upper seam, the whole
of these 219 men and boys could have got out of
the pit within an hour of the main shaft being
blocked up, and the frightful sacrifice which has
now taken place would have been avoided. It
is true that the direct cause of the calamity was
purely accidental; but it is equally certain that
the indirect cause was negligence on the part of
the owners, who, in their endeavours to work it
on economical principles, made no provision for
escape from the middle seam except through the
main shaft. No animal, it is said, burrows in
the earth, without making a second outlet for
escape in case of need; and, where human life is
at stake, surely no safeguard that wisdom and
experience can suggest should be deemed super-
fluous. On purely scientific questions, such as
to the best method of ventilating a pit, there
may be differences of opinion; but on the
question of the safety of a pit having only one
shaft, the public are as good judges as the most
scientific eugineers. If there is only one mode
of egress from the pits, the workman, the moment
he enters the pit, is in imminent danger, for
there are hundreds of ways in which his ascent,
by means of that particular shaft, may be cut off.
This is not an idea suggested by the present
disaster. Every extensive pit in England and
Wales, has two shafts; the New Hartley had
but one. The colliery not beings profitable one,
we are told, was worked on "economical" princi-
ples. Sad economy thst, to sacrifice upwards of
::
two hundred valuable lyre', and to widow and
orphanise more than fur hundred women and
children, to save but a ew pounds—the cost of
L
cutting a hole through a Sundred and sixty feet
of soft earth! We emplo\ ining Inspectors at
an enormous expense to t country, but of
what good are they if they do not enforce the
adoption of all measures ne for the safety
of human life? It may b / sal they are not
empowered to enforce, bu ;simply to suggest;
but if such 1%, he case, it quite evident that
more stringen for the safety of
miners ought to be adopted by Act of Parlia-
ment. We are not surprised that a strong feeling
besides one of grief should prevail among the
miners and pitmen of the coal district; and it is
the duty of every one to assist them by petition
to the Legislature, for greater protection than
they now possess.
But with these victims to a parsimonious
system of working the pit, it is now ended; and
besides that of assisting the miners to obtain the
adoption of measures to prevent future occur-
rences of the same kind, the public have a duty
devolving upon them, of making some adequate
provision for the unhappy families, who have
thus been bereft of their natural support and
protection. They consist, according to the
statement compiled by the clergy and ministers
of various denominations, after a house-to-house
visitation of the bereaved families, of 103
. widows, 257 children, 27 sisters supported by
" brothers, 2 orphans, 16 parents supported by
sons, aunt supported by nephew, and 1 grand-
mother supported by grandson. Of the male
population employed at this colliery, only 25
remain alive. But we will not dwell upon the
scenes of this "deserted village" since the fate
of those in the pit has been ascertained—the
dropped curtains at the dwellings showing that 1
death has entered there—the deeply affecting
meetings of relatives from a distance—and the
" Dadde will come no mair hame to the bairns."
Pleased are we to find that the families of the
lost men have been visited by benevolent persons,
including the Bishop of Durham, with his
Chaplain, and a number of ministers of religion, 1
and ladies attending to their immediate bodily '
necessities, and administering such comfort and
consolation as each case reqi ired. Not the
least gratifying incident in connection with this
melancholy affair, is that Her Majesty, while
secluded in the palace at Osborne, and oppressed
with grief, has thought of those "many poor
women" who, like herself, have been bereaved
of their dearest relatives. Who does not believe
that the Queen spoke the sentiments of her
heart, when she telegraphed through General
Grey to the viewer of the New Hartley Colliery,
—"The Queen is most anxious' to hear that
there are hopes of saving the poor people in
the colliery, for whom her heart bleeds ;" or
that, when she was made acquainted with the
result of the catastrophe she telegraphed, through
Col. Phipps—" The Queen has been deeply I
affected by the dreadful news from Hartley.
Her Majesty feels the most sincere sympathy
for the poor widows and orphans." For these
expressions of sympathy Her Majesty will be
entwined more closely, if it be possible, than it
even has been, in the affections of her loving
people.
Since the above was in type, we have learned with
satisfaction that the Government have already had
their attention drawn to the desirability for
, more direct legislation for the protection of men
engaged in mining operations; and that they have

addressed circulars to all the inspectors, calling on
them to make a return of all colleries in their dis-
tricts having but one shaft, the depth of the pit,
and the means of ventilation. It is also
gratifying to learn that meetings are announced to
be held in various parts of the country, to raise
subscriptions for the support of the poor
womeu and children, bereft of their natural
supporters. Already between £4,000 and £5,000
have been raised, but considerable more will be re-
quired for the purpose of establishing a permanent
fund. Her Majesty, with her usual liberality, has
subscribed the sum of £2OO. On Saturday and
Sunday the poor fellows were brought to bank, and
the wane, as the relatives looked upon those forms
who in life they loved moat dear, but now laid low
in death, may be faintly imagined, but can never
be described.