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

THE DREADFUL COLLIIYRY CCIDENT
IN NORTHUMBERLAND.

SHIELDS, FRIDAY MORNING.

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

Sisters supported by brothers
Orphans ..........

Parents supported by sons
Aunt supported by nephew 1
Grandmother supported by grandson

T0ta1....

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-

ligion and ladies, went to and fro among the cot-
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 necessities of the widows
and orphans are attended to. The village, denuded
as it is almost entirely of its "broad winners," pre.
sents an affecting spectacle this morning. The in-

teriors of the cottages are neat and clean, furnished,
as
clock, cmko, most
thpei tninheen:ts
cottages o t
t drawers,
s are, with the eight-day
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 mairhame to the bairns."
are putting on decent
gers from distant parts,
butblack,Nl s
have
a voa
enf d
friends the
f few, w oe
poor widows
tr
staffing
dsowga
withsn
them, some of whom
have come a couple of hundred miles to be with

them in their bereavement. Deeply affecting scenes
are occurring as relatives arrive, and the bereave-
ment in some families is 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 were bringing up. The fol-
lowing extract from the returns of the lost and the
ed forms interesting, though affecting,
cbheraepatverinta
he ,‘7shortan
daimple annals of the
poor :" _ _

"James, William, and George Glen, three lads
eight years Thomas
Glen, who has four
of age; himself
other
i nchtihl
de
rpeint,
underons of
unable to work for 19 weeks past.
s

"Mark Bell, another sufferer, unmarried; father
also a boy, who
s since, and can
balrmokoestheinstilreeglyindetpheenpdietntmonmhoinmth;
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.
" John, 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, and his brother—maintained
a widowed mother and sister under le 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 a publichouse 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 every 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
been entered, Which was the case, for he ap-
pears
to was
have 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
in 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 Sunday 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 aro 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 doubt 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 gas again. The men who have been down in
the shaft also complain of the effluvium that is
coming up, as decomposition must be going rapidly
on among the dead below. It is hoped that the
obstruction in the shaft may to a large extent have
been removed by the fall that took place this
morning. But that is all conjecture. The
canvass bratticing has been completed down to the
furnace drift, and it is hoped that if the obstruction
has been cleared away to some extent by the fall,
and the gas is speedily removed, the brattic-
ing may be soon got down to the yard seam.
Coffins for the dead,
which have been made at
the neighbourieg collieries, have been brought to
the pit this morning. 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
the adjacent collieries, in
Conjunction with the au-
thorities, have arranged that every decent respect
shall be shown to the remains when brought to
bank. Strong barricades have been erected; the
bodies will be coffined below. They y will be iden-
tified, if possible, down these also, and the name