The Express.
London, England, 1862-12-10 00:00:00

[Stamped, Id. AdditionaL]

THE FEARFUL COLLIERY EXPLOSION

AT WORBBOROUGH.

GREAT LOBS OF LIFE.
The following partienlan et the aho►e eecident are from
the Sitejield Independent :

The primary came of the accident was the ignition of a
" blower" of pa by the blasting of the coal at the ex-
treme " dip point "at the eouthernmart extremity of the
wcrkinp. It seems that the mine was being connected

with • new shaft which had been sunk to the southward.

and a straight heading was being driven through the noel

in the direction of this abaft. About seven or half-past

seven on Monday morning the men engaged in the operation
found it necessary to " blast" the coal, and a charge of

powder (" a shot") was accordingly fired. It seems that
the coal in the new workings gave out a great

quantity of gas, and the men were obliged to use
Davy lamps to ward off danger. One of the men states
that " the gas was coming out at a great rate." The
shot was Bred, sad ft ignited • " blower " of the gas.
which exploded, set fire to the coal, and blew down •
portion of the air course. At this time there were about
260 men and boys in the mine, and when so alarming
an occurrence in one part of the workings had taken place,
the reasonable inference seems to be that the persons in

charge of the mine should have sent word to all the men,
warning them that Miele wee danger of an uptake. Some
of the men, Isoworres, say tesithie was see dews, Itappears
that George Langhton, the bottom steward, an experienced
and intelligent man, endeavoured to put out the fire with-
out allowing the miners to become cognisant of its exist-
ence and the danger it entailed. lie went with a party of
the men, and commenced building a solid brick " stop-
ping" to radon) the ventilation. The work was carried
on vigorously, and an attempt made concurrently to
put out the fire. But neither seems to have been success-
ful The foul air accumulated in the mine, until at about
half-east eleven o'clock a fearful explosion took place, the
gas having fired where the coal was burning. The effect of
the explosion was most disastrous, many of the air-courses
were blown down, and the miners began to flock to the
bottom of the main shaft. Many of them received their
first warning of danger by the presence of the deadly
after-damp in their workings. Ooe young man, named
James M'Quillan, states that he was employed in No. 2
board, in the math wotkings, a considerable distance froin
any other working place. He " felt" the gas and became
alarmed, and left his place to seek some of the other miners.
Re saw one of them, named Peter Blacker, and told him there
was something the matter in the mine, and suggested an
immediate retreat, but Blacker told him he was too loon
I frightened, and that if he wanted to go he might, but
be (Blacker) should stay where he was. Fortunately for
himself M'Quillan went on tewards the shaft, and on the
way the gas became so powerful that be wee in extreme
danger, and bad to make a circuit round the workings half
• mile out of the direct path, in order to get into& purer air.
On the way he met a man named Edward Hunt, who asked
him to go with him and seek for his brother. They went
to the bottom of the board where young Hunt bad been
working, but the place was so full of gas that they found it
impossible to go up. M'Quillan struggled on until be ems
to the shaft, where a great number of men and boys were
waiting to take their turns to asceod. By this time the
alarm had become general, but notwithstanding the excite-
ment
the abaft was worked with quiet:roes and order, and
a great number of the men were rescued. Hopes wise
entertained that the whole would be brought out before I
any serious calamity took place, an event which was
dreaded every moment, in consequence of the rapid accu-
mulation of gas. The communication between some part
of the mine and the shaft had been destroyed by the second
explosion, and a number of men end boys, variously esti-
mated at from fifty to seventy, were still is the mine. The
hope of rescue appeared every moment growing Water, and
the hearts of those who were in safety on the pit bank
were deeply moved on behalf of their comrades who were
threatened with such a fate. As is always the ease
on such occasions, a number of noble fellows volunteered
to go down into the mine and search for those who bad
been cut off from succour by the progress of the suffo-
cating vapour. Five men, named George Laughton,
the bottom steward; Henry Laugbton, his eldest eon ;
Charles Frobisher, John Parkin, sod Benjamin Hoyland,
were the volunteers, and it is one of the most melancholy
facts connected with the calamity that these noble men
became involved in the fate of those whom they were en-
deavouring to rescue. They had been for some time in the
mine, and a number of the injured men—some of them in
such a condition that death would have been welcomed as a '
release from intolerable agony—had been sent to the pit
bank, when suddenly a third explosion took place, about
1 o'clock, and sealed the fate of ell who were then in the
mine. The effect of the repeated explosions had been, of
course, almost wholly to destroy the means of ventilating
the mine. The doom and stoppings in nearly every pert
of the mine bad been demolished, and the current of air
no longer compelled to pass through the whole of the miss,
on its way to the upeast shaft, was felt only in the
direct level from one shaft to the other. The
headings and board gates were totally without ventilation,
sad became magazines of explosive gu. An " overthrow,"
or bricked archway, which was built on the incline, about
160 yards from the cupola, to carry the air over the wort-
hy, was blown down, and the ventilation was necessarily
destroyed in that part of the mine. In other parts of the
workings the force of the blast produced the same effects. I
When the third explosion took place • consultation was
held at the pit-bank, and Ili the shaft gear was not in-
jured, several persons volunteered to go down and rescue
the poor fel/ows who remained in the mine. The
attempt to penetrate the workings was, however,
entirely fruitless of aught save danger to those who
made it. Repeated efforts were made, but all ended
in disappointment. The men found they could pass I
with comparative ease along the main road between the
tweet and downcast shafts for • abort time after the third
blast, in consequence of the current of air which was tra-
velling over the level ; but in a short time this path be-
came impassable by the advance of the fire and "after.
damp," and at about four o'clock orders weer issued to
allow no more men to descend the shaft. When the last
party returned, they reported that the place was so full of
foul vapour that they found it impossible to proceed more: I
thau ten or twelve yards from the bottom of the
ahaft. This was a plaiu and fearful indication of the
fate of those who remained in the mine, and the sur-
vivors alaudoned all hope that any more would be
rescued alive. The unhappy fulfilment of the gloomy
furebodinp that had been entertained gave rise to
a very distressing scene around the pit. The rela-
tives of the miners had clustered around the mine in au
incredibly short time after the news of the second explo-
sion spread abroad, and • degree of anxiety which weeds
cannot depict wee visible on the countenances of the wives
and mothers and other relatives of the men. As the
" cage" made repeated wade before the third explosion,
each time bringing a number of men to the safety of the pit
bank, the joyous feelings of their relatives or friends were
manifested with more or less of demonstration. Some of
the men were seriously affected by the after-damp, but they
recovered in a few minutes with the pure air, and were
able to proceed to their bonus. But when the third
blast took place, it speedily became apparent that ell
hope of any further rescue was gone, and the women
who had remained on the bank, after • brief but agonising
interval, in which they gave unrestrained vent to their
grief, slowly and sorrowfully withdrew. It was then im-
possible to ascertain the actual number of men and boys in
the mine, and the greatest uncertainty prevailed as to the
extent of the calamity. Many of the rescued men stated in the
coarse of the day that there were from sixty to seventy
persons entombed in the mine. One of those meo, who
seemed powerfully affected by the fate of his comrades, was
heard to ay that "it was a consolation to think that they
were trot killed by the blast, but that they were quietly
sleeping down below"—alluding to the insidious but fatal
action of the " choke-damp." We have previously stated
that a party of five volunteers descended the mine to search
for and succour there injured by the sewed explosion.
Those noble-hearted and daring fellows are all in the
mine, their heroism having cast them their lives. There
was something almost sublime in the single, unpre-
tending devotion with which these men dared the dangers of
the mine. One of the party, named Hoyland, was an old
moo, who hail been very often celled upon in similar emer-
gencies and when asked to go down the pit he made not
the slightest objection, although his experience must have
taught him that every step would be taken in the mine at

[TWOPEN

the risk of an instant and horrible death. Another of the
men, named Parkin, was standing upon the bank when
the others ware preparnsg for their dement, and,
upon being informed of the object of their labours, he
quietly pulled off his jacket and took his seat in the
cage with as much indifference as though there were no
danger to be met. This others were animated by a
similar spirit, and all acted with the noblest disregard
to their own misty in their 'misty to procure safety
for others. Their memory will beg be held in reve-
rence amongst a population noted for unpretending but
undaunted heroism.
A Special Telegram, dated Worsbro', yesterday, 11 a. m.,
says :—" The explosion turns out to have been of a much
more destructive and terrible character than hitherto re-
ported. The deaths, it is now believed, will not be short of
OM hundred. The names of forty-aix of the dead have been
&bendy aacertain' ed, and many others am not up to this
time accounted for. The pit is still on fire, and a omisulta-
ties with the government inspector is now going on in
ceder to devise some plan for extinguishiee it. As one
means to thin end, a trench is being dug to flood the pit
with water."
•

GREAT FIRE IN GRAYS-INN-LANE.

A few minutes after live o'clock laid evening, a
destructive fire broke out on the extensive premises of Mr.
W. Pritchard, builder and timber merchant, Portpool-lane,
Gray's-bon-lane. The premises are of peat extent, having
a frontage of about 100 feet in Portpool-lane, and extending
backwards for 150 fed into Beldwin's-gardens ; the front por-
tico being filled with stacks of valuable timber, sad the back
occupied u carpenters' workshops and saw aid planing
mills, bounded on the western side by a large pile of build-
ings known as the Model Lodging-houses, and on the eastern
side by a (number of large and old houses let cut in
rooms to poor families. The workmen in the carpenters
shops were on the point of leaving off work for the day, when
they were alarmed by seeing a large sheet of flame breaking
out in that portion of the shop immediately over the engine-
room, in which the machinery war situated for driving the saw
mills. The shop being fall of shavings and light wood,
they bad scarcely time to give the alarm before the whole
shop was in lames, and they were compelled to make a
precipitate retreat, • few only of those nearest the door
being able even to snatch up their bats and outs. The
alarm spread through the neighbourhood with great rapidity,
and in less than ten minutes a large body of the men em-
ployed in Messrs. Reed's brewery, in the adjoining street,
came round to the aid of Mr. Pritchard's workmen, •
while another body set to week, and having manned
the powerful engine belonging to the brewery,
brought the pipes over the roof of the brewery,
and poured a copious stream of water from the
brewery tanks on to the burning premises. By this time
the whole range of workshops vita the saw-mills were in one
mass of lame, which speedily extended to the high stacks
of timber, which, standing in close proximity, were all
speedily in a blaze, eausiog an illumination that made the
conflagration visible to all parts of the metropolis. Several
of the brigade engines, both steam and manual, bad by this
time arrived, but the efforts of the firemen were completely
paralysed for some time by the volumes of smoke laming
from the burning timber stacks. About six o'clock Captain
Shaw, having directed two of the steam engines to play
up the heap of burning timber to keep the flames in
c I..'k, turned his attention to save the Model Lodging-
houses on one side, and the old densely populated lodging-
houses on the other, the upper portions of each of which
were on fire.
There being a plentiful supply of water, about twenty
engines were brought into play, and they succeeded in pre-
venting to any peat extent the fire from spreading beyond
the premises where it originated. These, however, with the
whole of the valuable stock and plant, were entirely do-
stroyal, amounting in value to from 12,0001. to 15,0001.
The whole of the tool* of the carpenters, 26 in number,
averaging in value about 301. for each MON were also de-
stroyed. By nine o'clock all further danger was at an end,
at which time the whole area on which the timber yard
and workshop!? stood, about an acre iq extant, was one mass
of burning ruins, emitting dense volumes of smoke, blind-
ing all who were within *distal)°, of some hundred yards.
The fire is said to have originated from the overheating of
the shaft of the engine-room, which calmed a quantity of
shavings and sawdust lying does aloagside of It to igaite.
The rooms and scanty furniture el the poor puede thickly
inhabiting the surrounding houses were much damaged by
fire and water.

EQUALLSATION OT THE POOR HATE.—Litt evening
a public meeting of the inhabitants of St. Geome's, South-
wark, was held at the new school-room, Lint-street,
Borough, for the purpose of taking into consideration the
inequitable system of raising money for the relief of the
poor from the occupiers of lands and tenements only. Mr.
R. Archer occupied the chair. Several speeches were deli-
vered, condemnatory of the present mode of levying the
poor rates, and the following resolutions were submitted to,
and adopted by, the meeting :—" That the present system
of raising money for the relief of the poor of the county is
founded in error, and gives rise to the most unjust and un-
satisfactory results." " That the poor are a national bur-
then, and ought to be relieved from a national fund, and
that such fund should be produced by a contribution (in the
form of a property tax) from all realised property in the
nation of every kind (and whether real or personal) such
u that charged to the present property tax under Sche-
dule

TJI GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY AND MR. W. F.
WoDapt.—Oorrespoodeota of the Titus
Acomploto of the

liberty allowed to ter. W. F. Windham ow the dram Fasters
Railway. Ow gentleman writes :—"tdr. Windham has been
for months in almost the daily habit of travelling to Londrin
by the express train that leaves Norwich at 6 in the morn..
log, or soon after, and returning by the same train at night,
always dreamed as a guard, key in hand, ready to open or
lock his own or any other compartment. On Friday morn-
ing last I saw him at the Ely and Cambridge stations, appa-
rently superintending the luggage depsrtmeet, and actually
sambaing." Another says, " When I went on the platform
of the Norwich (Thorpe) station on Friday morning last,
I saw Mr. Windham, dressed se a guard, walking up
and down the train, with a key in his hand, opening
sod abutting the doors, which he always locked. Not
oaring to ask him to admit me to one of the carriages,
I went forward and asked a porter to allow me to enter the
compartment over which Le stood sentry, but was refused,
the porter saying it was engaged, and on my pressing to
know by whom, he said Mr. Windham. I then went fur-
ther down the train and endeavoured to get into another
compartment, but here I was met by Windham himself,
who locked the door and would not let me enter, stating
that Le had engaged this compartment for himself. I, Low •
ever, insisted on getting in, telling him that a porter had
his place reserved higher up the trsio, when be took his
key, unlocked the door, nod allowed me to enter. A short
time afterwards ha got in himself end locked the door after
him, shonting.in a hurried manner, • Now, guard, time'.
up, time's up ; sod I bad him as my wa companion as for as
I Wymoudham, where, to my great relief( as he rode with his
body out of window), he leaped out of the train as it was
about to stop, and a guard, coming shortly afterwarls, took
his luggage, sod I suppose placed him where he ought to
bays been put at first.
THE ACCIDENT ON THE GREAT EASTERN RA IL-
WAT.—Tbe secretary of tho Great Eastern Railway Com-
pany writes to us as follows :—" Referring to the pa:s-
ough in your paper of this day's date as to an alleged
serious accident on this railway yesterday to the 8.0
a.m. ex. Hertford passenger train, I shall Le glod if you
willpermit me to elate that no accident whatever occurred to
this or to any other passenger train on this railway yester-
day. The facts which seem to have given riem to the report
are these. The engine of a down goods train from Brox-
beams to Hertford, in shunting some trucks into a siding at
the Ware station, got off at the points about 7.30 a.m.,
and blocked the line until 9 a.m., when it was got on
again, and the traffic resumed. The pessengers by the
8 am. train from Hertford were brought to the point of ob-
struction at Ware, and there trasieferred into a train which
brought them on to London 47 minutes after time. The
occurrence took place on the Hertford branch about four
miles off the main line, and the statement as to danger to
the Norwich express train is cnually at variance with fact
as the statement that the engine of the h a.m. passenger
train left the rails." _ _ _

DESPATCH OF BRAZIL AND RIVED PLATE MAILS.
—SOUTH ANProN, Dec. 9.—The Royal Mail Company's
steamship Magdaleua. Captain Woolward, sailed hence
to-day with the monthly mails for St. Vincent. Pernam-
buco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Monte Video, Buenos Acres,
Re. She took out ni passengers, including the lion. J. A.
Pakenham, for Rio, also on freight bar silver COOK for
the Idiuiater of Finance at Rio ds Janeiro ; 1n4,702/. in gold
coin for the Brasil ports ; 1,0531. in English jewellery ;
3,0691. in French wellery ; and a full cargo of !tench and
Engin& merchandise.
CRYSTAL PALACE POTILTRY Pinion, AND RABBIT
Snow.—The attendance yesterday, the first day of this
show, was unusually goal. The show will ba continued
till Friday next.
Dowsuia-smarr, Dac. B.—The Queen has been
pleased to appoint Guitars Barthelemy Colin, EEL., Bar-
naterost-law. to be Paine Judge of the Supreme Court of
the Island of Mauritius ; and Charles Mills. Esq., to be
Sheriff for the territories of British Kaffraria.--Gazette.

WHITEHALL, Dir. 8. The Queen ban been
pleased to appoint the Rev. John Stuart. Minister of Saint
Andrew's Church, Edinburgh, to be one of her Majesty's
Chaplains in Ordinary in Scotland, in the room of the Rev.
Doctor Raman Mic eod, deeeased.—Gozette.