Wharncliffe Carlton. Barnsley, Yorkshire. 18th. October, 1883.

The Explosion

On the night of the explosion 25 men had gone down the pit. Of these 20 including the deputy Albert Button were at work in the ‘Dip’ district, four were working in the ‘Rise’ workings and John Clover, the colliery horsekeeper was in the stables attending to the horses. Of the 20 men in the ‘Dip’, three were at work on the main engine plane, below the bottom of the stone drift, two in the ‘Jump’ district; three were believed to be at work in the ‘Low South’ district and the remainder near the longwall face in
Nos. 1 and 2 slants. All of the 20 men in the ‘Dip’ lost their lives and because of the necessity to flood the mine, only 17 bodies were recovered. The other three were believed to be at the far end of the engine plane in the ‘Low South’ District.

Immediately after the explosion, steps were taken to restore the ventilation which had been damaged and to recover the bodies but it was not until the evening of 21st October that the 17 bodies were recovered. At this time the ‘Low South’ district had not been examined, partly because it was the furthest district from the shaft and partly because of a fall which blocked the road.

At about 8 p.m. on Sunday following the disaster, one of the exploring parties discovered a fire smouldering in the goaf in the face near the top of No.1 slant. The fire was immediately reported to the manager and to Mr. Wardell, the Inspector of Mines. Attempts were made to extinguish the fire and these continued until Monday afternoon when there was another explosion which slightly injured two or three men. After consultation it was decided that the best way to deal with the fire was to flood that part of the mine and steps were taken immediately. Pumps took water from a neighbouring steam and sent to the workings. It was decided that the pumping should continue until the water was level with the top of the Staple pit and the upper end Stone Drift. It was estimated that this would take some weeks and that the re-opening of the pit and the pumping out of the water would take a longer period.

James Flatney aged 14 years.
George Mason aged 16 years.
George Phillips aged 19 years.
Frederick Holland aged 25 years.
Edward Weller aged 28 years.
Albert Button aged 32 years.
Charles Starkey aged 36 years.
William Goulding aged 40 years.
William Mason aged 40 years.
William Fisher aged 41 years.
John Hallam aged 41 years.
John Wright aged 46 years.
William Lawson aged 49 years.
Richard Garbutt aged 49 years.
Charles Phillips aged 54 years.
William Shaw aged 54 years.
Henry Fisher aged 54 years.
Thomas Wood aged 55 years.
Ellis Ambler aged 58 years.
George Egley aged 65 years.

The inquest on the seventeen bodies that had been recovered was opened by Mr. Thomas Taylor, Coroner for the district. Unfortunately the remaining three bodies were still in the mine and there was no opportunity to examine the workings in which the explosion took place because of the flooding of the pit.

Arnold Lupton of Leeds was in the pit when the explosion occurred. He said that the blast was not great but it knocked him down but he soon recovered. He had lost his lamp but thought it too dangerous to go back to get it. There were several men who had survived but they had only three lamps between them and they had great difficulty in getting over falls as they made their slow progress to the pit eye. When they got to the pit eye, the injured were taken up first and he realised that Mr. Nash was missing so he and another collier went to try to rescue him. They took a lamp and found Mr. Mash and Hedley suffering and helpless but they had not lost hope. Lupton told the court he was sure from Saturday morning that there was fire in the colliery.

Four men who had been working on the ‘Rise’ side of the pit came out alive and no damage was done in that district. At the time of the explosion, the horsekeeper was in the stables and was struck down but not seriously injured. None of the horses in the stables were killed. The force clearly came up the engine plane from some point in the ‘Dip’ workings. All the witnesses at the inquiry the evidence of the part of the workings that had been examined indicated that the source of the blast must have been somewhere in the region of the longwall face.

A theory was put forward on behalf of the men that the explosion originated on the main engine plane and was caused by the firing of a shot near the Stone Drift. Cartridges and the Davy lamp which was used for shot firing had been taken down the pit by William Fisher who was the shotfirer at the pit. The Davy lamp was found close to his body at the foot of the Stone Drift and where he and two other men were at work but there was evidence that no shot had been fired.

After hearing the evidence, the jury brought in the following verdict:-
“That William Fisher and 16 others were killed by an explosion of gas on the night of the 18th October in the Wharncliffe Carlton Colliery but how the explosion was caused there is no evidence to show.”

Mr. Morley concluded the report by saying:-
“I regret that this is one of the cases in which the inquiry had not led to any practical results but this is mainly owing to the necessity for the closing of the mine in consequence of the apprehended conflagration. It has, I think, conclusively proved that there were no grounds for believing that the catastrophe was in any way due to bad management or misconduct of any person connected with the colliery and I have therefore to report that, in my judgement, there is no occasion for instituting proceedings against any one, either for an offence against the rules in relation to colliery management, or for criminal responsibility with reference to the loss of life resulting from the explosion.”