The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-25 00:00:00

THE DREADFUL COLL:RBI CCIDENT
IN NO.RIBUMBIELAND.

SHIELDS, FRIDAY MORNING.

The following is a statement, compiled by the
clergy and parochial authorities, after a house-to-
house visitation, of the bereavtd families left desti-
tute by the awful calamity atllartley Colliery :
Widows

Children

Sisters supported by brothers
Orphans
Parents supported by sons
Aunt supported by nephew 1
Grandmother supported b) grandson

Total

The exact number of men and lads killed in the
mine is 219. Of the male population employed at
this colliery, only 25 remain alive. The fami-
lies of the lost men reside in Colliery-row,Quarry-
row, and Old Hartley, and all day yesterday bene-
volent persons, including the Bishop of Durham,
with his chaplain, and a number of ministers of re-
, went to and fro among the cot-
ligion and ladies
tages administering such comfort and consolation
as each case required. The immediate wants of the
poor people have also been attended to, members
of the Society of Friends being very active in
that respect. Lord Hastings, who is the owner
of the royalty of the mine, has also •sent
one of his stewards down from Norfolk with special
instructions to see that the necessities of the widows
and orphans are attended to: The village, denuded
as it is almost entirely of its." 9read winners," pre•
sents an affecting spectacle thirinorning. The in-
flan ished,
atearmi°orbsrpitttimeZtstart:"es are, with tha ,ABht acv
clock, the chest of drawers, and the four-post bed
with chintz curtains. With the exception of some
dozen or so of dwellings the curtains are dropped,
showing that death has entered the household, and
that " Dadda will come ne mair hame to the bairns."
Most of the poor widows are putting on decent
black, and few, except strangers from distant parts,
but have friends staying with them, some of whom
have come a couple of hundred miles to be with
them in their bereavement. Deeply affecting scenes
are occurring as relativcesr arrive, and the bereave-
ment in some families i heavy. There are several
widows left with large families, one poor woman
named Oliver, having lost her husband and six
sons, with a boy they werei bringing up. The fol-
lowing extract from the eturns of the lost and the
bereaved forms an interesting, though affecting,
chapter in the "short tsnd simple annals of the
poor :"
" James, William, and George Glen, three lads
lost in the pit, sons of Thomas Glen, who has four
other children under eight years of age; himself
unable to work for 19 weeks past.
"Mark Bell, another Sufferer, unmarried; father
almost entirely dependent on him ; also a boy, who
broke his leg in the pit .15 months since, and can
not work.

" Patrick Whalpole ; has been only a fortnight
at the colliery ; leaves a mother unprovided for in
Scotland. _ _

"John and William Rutherford, young men, sons
of J. Rutherford, who is 67 years of age, and past
work, and who has a daughter unmarried, quite un-
provided for.
lon, George, and Alexander North, lads—
leave a father, mother, and two children, who have
been dependent upon them.
" Thomas Pearson, a single man—leaves an in-
firm father whom he supported.
" Duncan Gallagher, nd his brother—maintained
a widowed mother and:sister under 16 years of age.
" William Anderson=—the only son who could
work of his widowed mother, supported her, and a
younger brother and four sisters, all under 16 years
of age."

These are cases, as will be seen, quite apart from
the heavy bereavements suffered by wives and chil-
dren through loss of husband and parent. The
miners of New Hartley have the character of being
a remarkably steady and orderly class of workmen.
There is not are pntlichours -within a--mile and a--
quarter of the village, and several of the men were
local preachers and class-leaders among the various
Methodist communities, and very many of them
were pledged abstainers from intoxicating drinks.
Mr. Humble, the resident viewer, a calm, self-
possessed man of the George Stephenson type,
has wrought his way to his present position
from being an ordinary working hewer. Mr. Charles
Carr, the head viewer of the mine, and one of
its proprietors, and whose accumulated and almost
overwhelming misfortunes eery one laments, is
highly respected and esteemed in the Northern
coal trade. Amos, the lost overman—who every
one said would be found at his post whenever the
mine was entered, which was the case, for he
pears to have been stricken down by death after
making the last " jowling"—was a fine fellow; and
Tennant, one of the deputies, was a remarkable
character: He was a tall, noble-looking man.
Some years ago, while this pit was flooded out
with water, he fell down the shaft an extraordinary
depth ; but, by a wonderful providence he escaped
comparatively unhurt. He subsequently emigrated
to Australia, whence, after trying his fortune at
gold-digging, he returned home to his former
employment. Great confidence was placed in the
judgment of Amos and the energy of Tennant
is bringing the men out of the pit, and
into a place secure from the water. This
they succeeded in doing, and like true captains
of industry, they died at their post. They had
struggled up through the furnace drift after the
accident, and had hacked and hewn at the obstruc-
tion in the shaft until Suaday afternoon, when the
fall of stone took place in the shaft which drove
them away, and they were found lying at the post
of danger, but the post of duty—the furnace—
having died in mortal agony, the men and boys "in
by " having subsequently slept quietly away.
There will be great difficulty in getting the bodies
out of the mine. Fears are entertained that the
water may rise up to the yard seam, and then it
might be months before they could be recovered.
The dangers and difficulties that have had to be en-
countered in the shaft have been great, and but
for the patience and perseverance of Mr. Coulson,
the master sinker, no doutt many lives would have
been lost in the shaft, and many weeks more
might have elapsed before the real state of
things below could have been revealed. Be-
tween nine and ten o'clock this morning there
was another heavy fall of stone heard in the shaft,
not from the sides, fortunately, this time, but from
among the obstructions, and which went to the
bottom. The gas again came away—so much so
that the men working in the shaft had immediately
to come to bank ; and Mr. Coulson will not allow
any more to go down until the shaft is cleared of
the g
the Effluvium that is
coming up, as decomposition must be going rapidly
on among the dead below.
eega
alsoie The men who have been down in
the shafta .
complain of
It is hoped that the
obstruction in the shaft may to a large extent have
neighbouringmay
the soon
is
dead,
collieries,
o got ee pldown
been removed by the fall that took place this
morning. But that is all conjecture. The
canvass bratticing has been completed down to the
speedily furnace drift, and it is hoped that if the obstruction
has been cleared away to some extent by the fall,
and the
removed, the brattic-
ing -own to the yard seam.
Coffins
which have been made at
the
the pit this morning. have been brought to
A large number of sheets
and other things necessary for bringing the dead
decently to bank have also been stored up in readi-
ness in the school-room. The pitmen belonging to
thea au-
thorities, have arranged that every decent respect
h
:I conjunction with the :mains when brought to
b
bodies will be coffined below. They will be iden-
tified, if possible, do nhave been erected; the
there also, and the name