The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-08 00:00:00

FEARFUL COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

On Friday afternoon in last week, a terrible explesion
took place at the Bunker's Hill Colliery, North Staf-
fordshire. The mine is situate not far from the ill-
fated Talke Colliery, where so many lives were lost a
few years ago, and it is but a short distance from Big-
nail Hill Colliery, the scene of the lamentable catas-
trophe last Christmas Eve. Hitherto the Bunker's Hill
Pit has been remarkably free from accidents, and not a
single explosion has occurred in it since it was opened
some twenty years ago. Mokeover, every precaution is
taken to ensure perfect safety to the men employed in
the pit. There were about a hundred men and boys in
the pit, about thirty-five of them beine at work
in the eight feet Banbury seam, about 600 yards from the
shaft. At about one o'clock p.m. the explosion occurred,
and the report of it was heard for miles around.
The covering of the shaft regulating the air supply
was blown off, and some damage was done to the
framework. Numbers of persons attracted by the
noise, soon came to the pit bank, and in a very
short time the scene was crowded with people, whose
solemn, anxious faces told their sadness and their
fears. Exploring parties were directly formed and
began to descend in search of the unhappy tenants
of the Banbury Seam, whose fate was even then felt
to be sealed. A few bodies were soon met with,
but the greater number of the unfortunate men
were engaged at the extreme end of the workings.
Fortunately the efforts which were immediately made
to restore the ventilation were so successful that the
party were able to pursue its work without difficulty
on that account. The damage done to the pit was
comparatively trifling, beyond the destruction of
nearly all the lower stopings. Some of the bodies
were so horribly burned as to be utterly unrecognizable
by their features; other by their peaceful expression
seem to have had a painless death, produced by after-
damp. As they were brought to the surface they were
removed to an inn or to their homes. Not one of the
poor fellows recovered up to a late hour had a spark of
life. The cause of the explosion is unknown. Naked
lights were not allowed to be used, and the fireman
who examined the pit on Friday morning reported
it to be perfectly clear of gas. It is suggested that
the firing of a shot may explain the cause of the catas-
trophe. The men employed in the other part of the
pit escaped without injury.

MOIMAT.

The loss of life occasioned by the explosion
turns out to be even more serious than was at
first estimated. Instead of thirty-five, RB previously
stated, forty-two men were killed. The search for
the bodies was carried on without intermission until
five o'clock on Saturday morning, by which time forty-
one had been brought out of the pits, and, as these
appeared by the pit register to represent the whole of
the men and boys who had descended on the Friday
morning, operations were suspended. In the course
of the day, however, inquiries were made for another
man who was missing, and his remains were found
in the further end of the " dip " in which the
accident had occurred. The pro,ess of identifica-
tion was going on all the morning, some of the corpses
being so frightfully mutilated by burns as to be
utterly beyond identification, except by certain articles
of dress or by some personal peculiarity apart from
the face. Twenty-one bodies were placed in a large
room of the " Swan " Inn and presented a ghastly
spectacle. Most of them appeared to have been killed
instantaneously by burning or by the after-damp;
others wore the look of men who had had time to
struggle ineffectually with death. Some had, from the
places and positions in which they were found, tried
hard to escape, but had lost their way, and, falling
over obstructions they could not see in the dark, had
been overcome, before they could make another effort,
by the after-damp. The manager's son, Nehemiah
Sumner, who had been but a fortnight married, was at
the engine at the top of the " dip " at the time of the
explosion. He was blown with great force among
some timbers, and, in addition to being fearfully
scorched, was so serioubly injured that he died this
morning. _

As alieady stated, not one of all those in the "dip"
is alive, and the cause of the accident must be left to
be revealed as far as it can be by scientific investiga-
tion. Mr. Wynne, the Government Inspctor, and
Mr. Gilroy, his assistant, commenced an examination
of the pit on Saturday, but some days will elapse before
it is completed. There is, however, little doubt that
the explosion was caused by the iiring of a shot for
blasting, and that there was a sudden rush of gas the
existence of which had not been suspected. The pit
has been always singularly free from gas, for although
the "Banbury coal" is well known to be very gaseous,
the ventilation of the pit has been sufficient to pre-
vent it from being mischievous. A miner who gave
evidence at the opening of the inquest on Saturday
said he had worked in this mine for twenty years, and
it had always had good ventilation. He had seen no
gas whatever, although he had been working in the
Banbury seam for five years. This seems to be the
general opinion of the pit, and it is supported by the
fact of the ventilation being restored within an hour or
so of the explosion, notwithstanding its force.
The damage done to the mine is found by further
examination to be singularly slight, considering the
effect of the explosion upon human life. Beyond the
blowing away of the fittings of the up-cast shaft above
, and of brattices" below ground, and the tearing up
of some of the air roads, the mine is not much the
worse for the accident. A few days will suffice to put
the workings in order again, although work will not
be resumed until after Mr. Wynne has concluded his
examination. Two of the men killed on Friday only
began to work in the pit on the previous day, and one
of the lads whose name appears in the fatal list went
down two hours before the accident to take the place
of another boy who left on account of illness, and thus
escaped the fate of his substitute.
The village of Talke presented a most melancholy
spectacle on Saturday. Nearly all the houses had
their window-blinds drawn, and sadness was on the
faces of all the villagers who were abroad. The day
being wet there were not many visitors from other
places. In the afternoon the inquest was opened by
Mr. Booth, the district coroner, but only evidence of
identification, to enable the burial warrants to be
issued, was taken. The list of the dead, with their
ages and the number of survivors, is as follows :

William Maxfield, 22, wife and one child; Thomas
Lawton, 24, wife and three children; William Hancock, 33,
wife and five children; Enoch Hancock, 31, wife and two
children; James Stephenson, 15; John Buckley, 24. wife
and two children; Caleb Baddaley, 24, single; Dante
Charlesworth, 13; Thomas Peat, 17; David Bossons, 24,
wife and one child; John Rogers, 16; Thomas Thompson,
17; Isaiah Cooper, 22, wife and two children; Thomas
Beech, 23, wife and two children; Daniel Fox, 35, wife
and two children ; Jesse Nield, 23, wife and one child;
Eli Birtles, 20, single; James Boyd, 13; Thomas Holland,
33, wife and two children; John Hancock, 18; George
Breeze, 22, single; Samuel George Morris, 21, wife;
George Holland, 44, wife and ten children; Joseph Chad-
wick, 23, wife and one child; William Henry Boughey, 14;
Henry Dean, 42, wife and five children; Thomas Dean, 14;
Joseph Holland, 26, wife and one child; Levi Ashmore, 14
Walter Moore, 40, wife and two children: Herbert Moore,
13; Richard Dale, 13; James Edward Higgs, 20, single;
Richard Jackson, 59, seven children; John Lucas, 26, wife
and one child; James Yearsley, 27, wife and two children;
Joseph Carter, 23, single; William Henry Proudlove, 16;
James Stubbs, 18; John Marshall, 17; Joseph Ashmore, 45,
wife and
child, four children; Robert Mason, 28, wife and one