The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-21 00:00:00

4IVD LOSS OF LIFE.

The:Birnzinghom Doily Post of yesterday says
" The neighbourhood of Blackheath, near Dudley,
has been thrown into a state of painful excitement
by the occurrence of one of those terrible accidents
which are unfortunately so common in the mining
districts of South Staffordshire, The particulars,
as far as our correspondent has been able at present
to learn, are as follows :—Mr. W. H. Dawes (of the
Bromford Ironworks) has a colliery at Blackheath,
at which both coal and ironstone are worked. The
machinery used is of the most complete description,
and of first-class character, and the colliery, with
its appliances, is altogether worthy of being taken
as a model. The shaft which goes down to the coal
workings is about 275 yards deep, while the iron-
stone workings are about 15 yards deeper. Both of
these departments were in full work, as usual, up
till Tuesday night last, when the winding engine
broke while engaged in drawing water. The works
were thus partially stopped, but another engine was
used for the purpose of pumping. This work was
going on as usual during the night of Friday last,
and Mr. Llewellyn, the chartermaster, was on the
spot, superintending the work. About 3 o'clock on
Saturday morning he heard a noise as if an explo-
sion had occurred down the pit, and immediately
there arose from the upcast shaft an immense vo-
lume of smoke and rubbish. It should be here men-
tioned that for four years past an engine of about
14 horse-power has been used down the pit for draw-
ing the loaded skips out of the deep workings, and
also for the purpose of pumping water out of the
deep into the.' sump.' What occasioned the noise
that Mr. Llewellyn heard is not at present known ;
but it is conjectured that the boiler burst, and scat-
tered the burning fuel in the furnace about in every
direction, setting fire to the adjacent supporting
timbers, and that thus the conflagration extended
upwards out of the stone pits into the coal work-
ings. Whether this be so or not remains to be
proved, but the fire extended up one of the shafts
arid almost set on fire the pit frame above, while the
cold air rushed in a perfect hurricane down the
other shaft to feed the flames. When the catas-
trophe was first discovered it was attempted to
smother the flames by throwing large quantities of
ivater-glowrcitieypeitit,o4ft, but it was alto„„,,,etlaer,
incifecilyal; "thelikater ing speedily turned into
steitin44 thr9Tylit ack swain up the shaft. The
upcast- shaft was then scalfolded over and covered
with rubbish to prevent the air getting down the
pit, but it was of very little use, the flames conti-
nued to make way, and the guides and other appli-
ances inside the shaft were entirely destroyed. The
government inspector (Mr. Baker) visited the
spot during Saturday evening, and after he left the
upcast shaft was scaffolded over like the downcast,
and thickly covered with rubbish and sand ; but
still such was the force of the subterranean fire
that the smoke of its flames percolated, as it were,
through the mass of covering above, and was
plainly visible during the whole of yesterday
(Sunday). The saddest portion of the narrative
is the fact that there were three men •at work
down the pit at the time the accident occurred.
One, named Thomas Johnson, aged 20, was em-
ployed to superintend the underground engine. The
other two were brothers, William and Edward
Hunt, and were drawing slack for the use of the
engineer, Johnson. All the men were young and
unmarried. Besides the men there were 17 valu-
able horses down the pit. During Saturday several
futile attempts were made to descend one of the
shafts, but it was perfectly impossible to do so for
some time, the steam and smoke which arose being
very dense and suffocating. At last the engineer
on the bank' (Mr. Dutton), with Richard Ash-
man and James Plant, two of the colliers employed,
managed to get to the bottom of the downcast shaft,
and they immediately went to look for the men ;
but it was impossible to get anywhere near them,
as all the passages were on fire. Four horses were
seen dead in one of the stables, but the others could
not be reached. The horses are computed to be
worth at least about £350 or £4OO. As to the
whole extent of the damage it is impossible to form
any correct estimate ; but under the most favour-
able circumstances the timber in the coal pit and a
large quantity of the mineral it self will be destroyed
and the shaft rendered a perfect wreck, thus involv-
ing a loss of probably ,L 2,000 or £3,000. It is
almost needless to say that there is not the remotest
chance of ever recovering either the men or the
horses, as the mine will very likely continue to burn
for weeks, and all in it will be reduced to ashes.
Several of the mine owners, mining engineers,
and surveyors of the district, visited the place
during Saturday and yesterday, and crowds
of curious visitors have congregated night
and day to watch the chances of extinguish-
ing the fire. Mr. Baker (Government
anln-
spector of Mines), Mr. E. Williams, Mr.
Peacock, and Mr. Thomas Brettall (surveyor of the
twbeerleon burnt--but
t to hmr
Dawes, near Oldbury. t
u
colliery) examined the place, as far us possible on
Saturday, and every necessary attention is being
paid to the progress of the terrible conflagration.
merepn
before
in six
o"th
notOn Only
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ws
e vd earyes
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THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN AND THE THEATRES.-0'
Thetai
Lord Bishop
e rgChamberlain,y of Londonhaswhohas
‘vipresentedaddressthdraanwn
the prforhom
and laity of his diocese to Lord Sydney, the
clauses from the license of the metropolitan theatres,iwbihtcoiecryr:
n c
under the new arrangements will be opened in the neat
Holy Week for the usual theatrical performances. The
Lord Chamberlain has replied that ho has permitted the
London theatres to be opened in order to assimilate their
practice to that of the country theatres, over which he has
no control, and that whilst he was not prepared to recall the
permission which he had granted, yet that he had no
doubt that the managers would keep their theatres closed
if they thought that the opening of them would be objected
to by any large number of persons. A committee of the
leading laity and clergy of the diocese of London is in
course of formation for the purpose of pressing upon her
Majesty's Government the advisibility of insisting that
this step shall be retraced. The Rev. W. Denton, M.A.,
incumbent of St. Bartholomew's,Cripplegate, who is taking
the
closing
ui
an active part in the movement, says in an address which
he has issued :—" I write in hope that members of the
Church, and the clergy especially, will bestir themselves to
avert this insolent disregard to national feeling and the
conscience of the religiously-minded eubjects of her
Majesty. We have been lately called upon, very properly,
to testify our respect for the husband of our Queen, and
the
er
meanssufferingssympahthyywfhotrehthteheLord
show our sense of the national loss 77as to direct
of theatres. Surely at such a time it is strangely inconsis-
tent that the same functionary should permit the opening
of the same theatres at the time when
world are celelz iating the passions death of our
Redeemer,"
the whole Christian
Chamberlain of her
Maj Tees required One
us to of