Disasters

Explosions, floods, collapses and other major incidents at UK mines — including significant post-closure incidents in abandoned workings. Each record is researched to the same standard as a mine or terminology entry, not just a casualty count.

125 disasters.

• Abercarn colliery (Prince of Wales) explosion, 1878
  11 September 1878 · Explosion · Caerphilly · 268 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion tore through Prince of Wales Colliery (Abercarn Colliery) on 11 September 1878, killing 268 men and boys — the third-worst death toll in South Wales Coalfield history.
• Aberfan disaster, 1966
  21 October 1966 · Surface / Tip Failure · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 144 fatalities
  A saturated colliery waste tip above the village of Aberfan collapsed as a liquefied slurry on the morning of 21 October 1966, engulfing Pantglas Junior School and nearby houses and killing 144 people, 116 of them children — one of the deadliest disasters in British history and a direct consequence of how the colliery's own waste tips had been sited and managed.
• Agecroft Colliery shaft accident, 1859
  4 January 1859 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Greater Manchester · 7 fatalities
  Seven men and boys were drawn against the winding pulley and fell down the shaft at Agecroft Colliery on 4 January 1859, after a shaft-position indicator's signal band slipped loose and the engineman, with no other way to judge the cage's position, relied on hearing the signal bell alone.
• Albion Colliery explosion, 1894
  23 June 1894 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 290 fatalities
  A firedamp and coal-dust explosion tore through Albion Colliery on 23 June 1894, killing 290 men and boys — the second-worst death toll of any British colliery disaster after Senghenydd in 1913.
• Alderley Edge West Mine deaths
  May 1929 · Other · Cheshire · 2 fatalities
  Two men, George Etchells and Alfred Hadfield, died after going into the disused West Mine and losing their way in its passages; their bodies were not found for three months.
• Annagher Pit fireball, 1898
  29 September 1898 · Explosion · County Tyrone · 3 fatalities
  Coal had been coming out of the new Annagher pit for barely a month when, shortly after one o'clock on 29 September 1898, gas ignited sixty metres down and engulfed four miners in a fireball. Three died. Two men who went back down after them were decorated for it, one with the Royal Humane Society's highest award.
• Astley Green Colliery explosion, 1939
  7 June 1939 · Explosion · Greater Manchester · 5 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion struck Astley Green Colliery in the early hours of 7 June 1939 while men fought an underground fire over a mile from the pit bottom, killing five men including the pit manager and injuring four more; mines rescue teams were themselves driven back by further explosions.
• Auchengeich Colliery explosion, 1931
  22 January 1931 · Explosion · North Lanarkshire · 6 fatalities
  An explosion tore through the night shift in No. 2 Pit — the Round Pit — at Auchengeich Colliery in the early hours of 22 January 1931. Five men were killed outright and a sixth died the next day. Five others who had escaped unhurt went straight back in to look for them and were themselves overcome by gas.
• Auchengeich Colliery fire, 1959
  18 September 1959 · Fire · North Lanarkshire · 47 fatalities
  A fire in an underground booster fan filled the return airway of Auchengeich Colliery with carbon monoxide, and a man-riding train carrying 48 miners was sent into it. Forty-seven died; one man walked out. It remains the worst mining disaster in 20th-century Scotland.
• Auchenharvie Colliery inrush, 1895
  2 August 1895 · Flooding / Inundation · North Ayrshire · 9 fatalities
  At about three in the afternoon on 2 August 1895, water burst out of old workings into the rise of Auchenharvie's No. 4 Pit and swept down the inclines to the shaft and on into the dook. Nine people drowned, four of them brothers and two of them children. Five more were entombed behind a blockage and dug out alive two days later.
• Baddesley Colliery Explosion
  1 May 1882 · Explosion · Warwickshire · 32 fatalities
  An underground fire, started by an unprotected steam boiler installed in the return airway, trapped nine night-shift men in the deep workings at Baddesley Colliery. The rescue effort ran for fourteen hours before a gas explosion killed twenty-three of the men attempting it, among them the colliery's owner. Thirty-two died in all.
• Barnburgh Main Colliery explosion, 1957
  26 June 1957 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 6 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at 3pm on 26 June 1957 in the Newhill seam's North West 1 District at Barnburgh Main Colliery killed six men and injured fourteen others, after a shot-firing blast brought down a stone that damaged a power cable, producing a flash that ignited gas escaping from a break in the roof 73 yards away.
• Bentley Colliery explosion, 1931
  20 November 1931 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 45 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion in the North-East District of Bentley Colliery's Barnsley seam killed 45 men and boys on the evening of 20 November 1931, most likely ignited by a gob fire smouldering in the mine's old workings; the rescue that followed brought eight Edward Medals.
• Bentley Colliery manrider derailment, 1978
  21 November 1978 · Haulage / Transport · South Yorkshire · 7 fatalities
  An underground manriding train carrying 65 miners derailed after running away down an incline at Bentley Colliery on 21 November 1978, killing seven men and injuring many more.
• Bersham Colliery explosion, 1909
  3 August 1909 · Explosion · Wrexham · 8 fatalities
  A shot fired at the far end of the No.2 West Level ignited a pocket of firedamp at Bersham Colliery on 3 August 1909, killing eight men.
• Bickershaw Colliery explosion, 1942
  5-6 January 1942 · Explosion · Greater Manchester · 6 fatalities
  An explosion in No.4 pit's Rise Unit, probably caused by spontaneous combustion igniting gas in sealed-off old workings, killed 6 men shortly before midnight on 5 January 1942.
• Bickershaw Colliery explosion, 1959
  10 October 1959 · Explosion · Greater Manchester · 5 fatalities
  Carbon monoxide from an explosion in an abandoned district of the Plodder Seam killed 5 men at Bickershaw Colliery on 10 October 1959.
• Bickershaw Colliery shaft accident, 1932
  10 October 1932 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Greater Manchester · 19 fatalities
  An overwound cage carrying 20 men plunged through the bottom of Bickershaw's No.3 shaft into a water-filled sump on 10 October 1932, drowning 19 of them in one of British mining's worst shaft accidents.
• Big Pit explosion (1908)
  11 December 1908 · Explosion · Torfaen · 3 fatalities
  A localised underground explosion killed three men.
• Big Pit fire (1913)
  7 April 1913 · Fire · Torfaen · 3 fatalities
  Three men died in a fire near the underground stables while trying to rescue the pit ponies stabled there; the horses survived.
• Bold Colliery shaft accident, 1905
  20 January 1905 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Merseyside · 5 fatalities
  A cage carrying men down the shaft at Bold Colliery, St Helens, descended too rapidly on 20 January 1905, overshooting the Yard Mine level and crashing onto a sinking platform thirty yards below, killing five miners and seriously injuring fourteen more.
• Botallack Mine shaft accident
  18 April 1863 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Cornwall · 9 fatalities
  The chain hauling a man-carriage up the Boscawen Diagonal Shaft broke; the carriage ran back out of control and struck timber at the bottom, killing all nine men and boys aboard.
• Bothwell Castle Colliery shaft accident, 1889
  28 June 1889 · Winding / Shaft Accident · South Lanarkshire · 5 fatalities
  An engineman's failure to shut off steam in time sent a descending cage crashing into its seat at Bothwell Castle Colliery's No. 2 pit on 28 June 1889, killing five miners.
• Boulby Mine gas blowout, 2016
  17 June 2016 · Other · North Yorkshire · 1 fatality
  Miner John Anderson, 56, was killed at Boulby Mine on 17 June 2016 by a sudden, powerful release of trapped gas — a 'gas blowout' around 15 metres across that displaced an estimated 1,000 tonnes of mineral, described by one expert witness as the biggest such blowout he had ever seen. It followed a separate fire at the mine only two months earlier that had injured seven workers.
• Bryngwiog Mine inrush, 1862
  February 1862 · Flooding / Inundation · Flintshire · 16 fatalities
  Sixteen men drowned when Bryngwiog Mine, on Halkyn Mountain, broke into the flooded old workings of the abandoned Hendre Mine and filled with water within minutes — one of the worst disasters in the district's lead-mining history.
• Burngrange Oil Shale Mine explosion and fire, 1947
  10 January 1947 · Explosion · Midlothian · 15 fatalities
  An open acetylene cap lamp ignited firedamp underground at Burngrange Oil Shale Mine on the evening of 10 January 1947, triggering an explosion and fire that killed 15 of the 53 men underground that shift — the greatest single loss of life in the history of Scotland's shale oil industry.
• Cadeby Main Colliery disaster, 1912
  9 July 1912 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 91 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at Cadeby Main Colliery in the early hours of 9 July 1912 killed 35 men outright, with three more later dying of their injuries; a second explosion that same day killed 53 members of the rescue party sent to recover the dead, bringing the total death toll to 91 — one of the worst mining disasters in British history.
• Cambrian Colliery explosion, 1905
  10 March 1905 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 35 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at Cambrian Colliery's No.1 pit in Clydach Vale killed 35 men on the night of 10 March 1905, apparently ignited when a bratticeman's safety lamp broke against falling rock; a five-day underground fire that followed prevented any further rescue.
• Cambrian Colliery explosion, 1965
  17 May 1965 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 30 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at Cambrian Colliery, caused by an electrical arc igniting gas that had built up after a ventilation structure was left open for over two hours, killed 30 men on 17 May 1965 — the last major mining disaster in South Wales history.
• Cardowan Colliery explosion, 1932
  16 November 1932 · Explosion · North Lanarkshire · 11 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion, triggered when a shot was fired into coal already loosened by an earlier shot, killed 11 men at Cardowan Colliery's dip side face on 16 November 1932.
• Cavanacaw rockfall and water inrush, 2018
  July 2018 · Collapse / Roof Fall · County Tyrone · 0 fatalities
  Over-charging with explosives brought down 150 tonnes of rock from an underground roadway roof at Cavanacaw Gold Mine, narrowly missing a worker, before the resulting unstable ground let surface water flood into the workings, further endangering the underground workforce.
• Chatterley Whitfield (Whitfield) Colliery explosion
  7 February 1881 · Explosion · Staffordshire
  A smithy fire spread through the ventilation flue and ignited gas underground, and further explosions followed when ventilation was cut to fight the fire — sources give the final death toll as anywhere from 21 to 28.
• Congo Pit flooding, 1895
  10 December 1895 · Flooding / Inundation · County Tyrone · 6 fatalities
  At ten past one in the morning of 10 December 1895 the Emerald Pit in the townland of Congo flooded catastrophically and six men were killed. The colliery's head engineer had warned that old water-filled shafts lay nearby and that breaching one would be disastrous. That is exactly what happened.
• Creswell Colliery fire, 1950
  26 September 1950 · Fire · Derbyshire · 80 fatalities
  A conveyor-belt fire at a transfer point in Creswell Colliery's High Hazel seam killed 80 men by carbon monoxide poisoning on 26 September 1950, after fire cut off the only intake route and toxic smoke filled the sole usable return airway — one of the worst British coal-mining disasters of the post-war era.
• Cronton Colliery explosion
  11 December 1917 · Explosion · Merseyside · 8 fatalities
  An explosion in the Pasture (Crombouke) seam during the morning shift killed eight men after two shots were fired simultaneously at adjoining stalls, likely igniting firedamp released by a roof fall.
• Cwmorthin Back Vein collapse
  1884 · Collapse / Roof Fall · Gwynedd
  A catastrophic collapse in the Back Vein roughly halved production and made about half the workings inaccessible, eventually forcing the operating company into liquidation.
• Cwmorthin fatal accident and mine-status test case
  1875 · Other · Gwynedd
  A fatal accident at Cwmorthin — nicknamed 'The Slaughterhouse' after 21 workers died there between 1875 and 1893 — led to a test case that reclassified the site as a mine rather than an exempt quarry under new safety law, and the company was wound up soon after.
• Cynheidre-Pentremawr outburst, 1971
  6 April 1971 · Gas / Asphyxiation · Carmarthenshire · 6 fatalities
  Shortly after noon on 6 April 1971, a heading being driven in the No. 2 Cross Measure Driveage at Cynheidre erupted without warning, ejecting around 400 tons of fine coal and roughly two million cubic feet of firedamp into the workings. Six men were killed by asphyxiation, and the gas travelled far enough through the ventilation system to overcome dozens more at a longwall face a considerable distance away before a quick-thinking electrician shut down an auxiliary fan and slowed its spread.
• Daw Mill Colliery fire, 2013
  22 February 2013 · Fire · Warwickshire · 0 fatalities
  An underground fire caused by spontaneous combustion broke out at Daw Mill Colliery, Britain's biggest coal producer, described as the worst underground blaze in the UK for thirty years; all 92 workers underground were safely evacuated, but the fire could not be extinguished and led directly to the mine's permanent closure and UK Coal's collapse into administration.
• Deep Navigation Colliery shaft accident, 1902
  11 November 1902 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Merthyr Tydfil · 5 fatalities
  A fractured cast-iron pump pipe fell from the shaft wall onto an ascending, double-decked cage carrying 32 men at Deep Navigation Colliery on 11 November 1902, killing five and injuring two.
• Dolcoath Mine stope collapse
  20 September 1893 · Collapse / Roof Fall · Cornwall · 8 fatalities
  A timbered stope collapsed at the 412-fathom level, one of the deepest workings in Cornwall, killing eight miners and trapping a ninth for over a day and a half before he was rescued unhurt.
• Easington Colliery explosion, 1951
  29 May 1951 · Explosion · County Durham · 83 fatalities
  An underground explosion in the Fifth ('Duckbill') district of Easington Colliery killed 81 miners outright, with two rescue workers later dying from the effects of afterdamp — one of the worst British colliery disasters of the 20th century.
• East and North Wheal Rose Flooding Disaster
  9 July 1846 · Flooding / Inundation · Cornwall · 39 fatalities
  A sudden, violent thunderstorm flooded East Wheal Rose and the neighbouring North Wheal Rose within minutes on 9 July 1846, drowning 39 miners in the deadliest single mining disaster in Cornwall's history.
• East Pool Mine shaft collapse
  1921 · Collapse / Roof Fall · Cornwall · 0 fatalities
  A large underground rockfall destroyed both of East Pool's winding shafts and flooded the mine; no deaths were reported, but the mine had to sink an entirely new shaft to survive.
• Elliot Colliery Cage Fall
  4 March 1892 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Caerphilly · 3 fatalities
  Three men fell to their deaths at Elliot Colliery, New Tredegar, on 4 March 1892 when a bolt connecting the top of their cage snapped as they were being lowered down an 86-yard trial shaft, dropping the cage and its occupants to the bottom.
• Far Green Colliery shaft accident, 1859
  5 November 1859 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Staffordshire · 10 fatalities
  An ascending cage carrying sixteen men and boys overwound fifty feet past its normal stopping point and struck the headgear pulley at Far Green Colliery on 5 November 1859, after the winding engineman was briefly distracted; ten died.
• Ferndale Colliery explosion, 1867
  8 November 1867 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 178 fatalities
  Two consecutive explosions at Ferndale Colliery's No.1 pit killed 178 men and boys on 8 November 1867, after a gas accumulation the fireman had already warned the manager about ignited from a naked light — one of the worst disasters in Welsh mining history.
• Ferndale Colliery explosion, 1869
  10 June 1869 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 53 fatalities
  A second major explosion at Ferndale Colliery, in the fiery Four Foot Seam, killed 53 men and boys on 10 June 1869, less than two years after the pit's 1867 disaster.
• Flooding of the Adelaide Mine
  13 March 1928 · Flooding / Inundation · Cheshire · 0 fatalities
  A sudden inrush of water flooded the Adelaide rock-salt mine at Marston overnight on 13 March 1928, ending rock-salt mining at Northwich for good and creating the subsidence lake now known as Adelaide Flash.
• Fordell Colliery boiler explosion, 1876
  30 September 1876 · Explosion · Fife · 4 fatalities
  A steam boiler exploded at Fordell Colliery's William Pit near Dunfermline on 30 September 1876, killing four people outright — mostly young women sheltering near the boiler house during a work stoppage — with a possible fifth victim dying later of her injuries.
• Frickley Colliery gassing, 1931
  28 December 1931 · Gas / Asphyxiation · South Yorkshire · 5 fatalities
  Five deputies were overcome by carbon monoxide and died while reopening Frickley Colliery after its Christmas shutdown on 28 December 1931, in what became remembered locally as the darkest single day in the colliery's history.
• Gartshore Colliery explosion, 1923
  28 July 1923 · Explosion · East Dunbartonshire · 8 fatalities
  An explosion at No. 3 Gartshore Pit on the evening of 28 July 1923 killed eight of the twelve men constructing a water lodgment at the bottom of a new shaft; a pit bottomer thrown clear by the blast climbed back underground himself to help pull the injured to safety.
• Gethin Colliery explosion, 1862
  19 February 1862 · Explosion · Merthyr Tydfil · 47 fatalities
  Gas ignited at a naked flame in the No. 19 heading of Gethin's Lower pit on 19 February 1862, killing 47 men and boys. The inquest found the ventilation deficient and returned a verdict of manslaughter against the manager; a grand jury then found no case to answer.
• Gethin Colliery explosion, 1865
  20 December 1865 · Explosion · Merthyr Tydfil · 34 fatalities
  Three years and ten months after the Lower pit killed 47 men, Gethin's Upper pit exploded on 20 December 1865 and killed 34 more. John Moody, the manager held responsible for the first explosion and never tried for it, was found culpably negligent again — and acquitted again.
• Golborne Colliery explosion, 1979
  18 March 1979 · Explosion · Greater Manchester · 10 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion in the Plodder Seam at Golborne Colliery killed ten men on 18 March 1979; a 20-year-old apprentice electrician, seriously injured, was the sole survivor among those caught in the blast.
• Great Laxey Mine scaffold collapse
  10 December 1904 · Collapse / Roof Fall · Isle of Man · 4 fatalities
  A working scaffold gave way underground, and the four men on it fell into a water-filled sump about 17 feet deep. All four drowned, including the youngest, 18-year-old Henry Lewis Gelling.
• Greenside Mine fire, 1952
  7 July 1952 · Fire · Cumbria · 4 fatalities
  A fire that broke out over a weekend in the North Shaft workings released carbon monoxide through the mine when the day shift restarted the air compressor, killing four miners — the worst single loss of life in Greenside's history.
• Greenside Mine gas exposure, 1960
  14-15 January 1960 · Gas / Asphyxiation · Cumbria · 2 fatalities
  Two surface workers at Greenside Mine, William Sinkinson and Alex Santamara, died from gas exposure after entering abandoned stopes without authorisation, searching for mineral specimens, on the night before the mine's second Operation Orpheus test explosion. A rescue attempt by two colleagues left both men briefly overcome by the same gas, and earned them the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct; an inquest attached no blame to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment scientists then working at the mine.
• Gresford Colliery explosion, 1934
  22 September 1934 · Explosion · Wrexham · 266 fatalities
  An explosion in the Dennis section of Gresford Colliery's Main seam killed 261 miners in the early hours of 22 September 1934, with three more men dying in the rescue effort and a further worker killed in a subsequent explosion — 266 deaths in total, making it one of the worst disasters in British mining history. A subsequent government inquiry found widespread falsification of ventilation records and serious management failings, though prosecutions resulted only in a conviction for inadequate record-keeping.
• Haig Colliery explosion, 1922
  5 September 1922 · Explosion · Cumbria · 39 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at Haig Colliery on 5 September 1922 killed 39 men, the worst of three major explosions to strike the mine over its working life.
• Haig Colliery explosion, 1931
  29 January 1931 · Explosion · Cumbria · 27 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion in the Main Band seam, over two miles underground at Haig Colliery, killed 27 miners and injured 13 more on the evening of 29 January 1931.
• Hamstead Colliery fire, 1908
  4 March 1908 · Fire · West Midlands · 26 fatalities
  A fire at the pit bottom staging of Hamstead Colliery, near Great Barr, killed 26 men on 4 March 1908, including a rescuer, after poisonous fumes filled the workings before most of the underground shift could escape.
• Hapton Valley Colliery explosion, 1962
  22 March 1962 · Explosion · Lancashire · 19 fatalities
  A gas explosion at Hapton Valley Colliery just after 9.45am on 22 March 1962 killed 16 men outright, with three more later dying of their injuries, in a mine whose seams were already known to carry unusually high levels of firedamp.
• Hartley Colliery disaster, 1862
  16 January 1862 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Northumberland · 204 fatalities
  The cast-iron beam of New Hartley Colliery's pumping engine fractured and fell down the mine's single shaft during a shift changeover, blocking the only way in or out and sealing 204 men and boys underground, all of whom died of suffocation over the following days despite a sustained rescue effort. The disaster's central lesson — that a mine with only one shaft has no way out if that shaft fails — led directly to a change in the law within months.
• Herbertshire Colliery explosion, 1893
  30 June 1893 · Explosion · Falkirk · 2 fatalities
  On the afternoon of 30 June 1893, an explosion of firedamp and coal dust in the Dook Section of Herbertshire No. 3 pit, Denny, killed two men and injured several more. A formal government inquiry, appointed personally by the Home Secretary H. H. Asquith, concluded after a two-day hearing and 29 witnesses that a safety lamp had been unlawfully opened, exposing a naked flame in ground where fine, dry coal dust turned a small gas ignition into a serious explosion.
• Houghton Main Colliery explosion, 1930
  12 December 1930 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 7 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion during ripping operations at Houghton Main Colliery killed seven men in December 1930, after a deputy fired a fourth shot hole despite reportedly detecting a break in the coal that should have prompted a check for gas.
• Houghton Main Colliery explosion, 1975
  12 June 1975 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 5 fatalities
  An explosion in the Meltonfield seam at Houghton Main Colliery on 12 June 1975 killed five men after firedamp, which had accumulated in an unventilated heading for nine days, was ignited by frictional sparking from an auxiliary fan; a major public inquiry followed.
• Houghton Main Colliery shaft accident, 1886
  30 December 1886 · Winding / Shaft Accident · South Yorkshire · 10 fatalities
  An overwound cage struck the headframe and fell 535 yards down the shaft at Houghton Main Colliery on the morning of 30 December 1886, killing all 10 men and boys riding in it; the engineman was tried for manslaughter and acquitted.
• Kellingley Colliery gas explosion, 2010
  23 November 2010 · Explosion · North Yorkshire
  A methane explosion in Kellingley Colliery's 501's District during the evening shift on 23 November 2010 forced the evacuation of 218 miners. No one was killed or seriously injured, but a Health and Safety Executive investigation found a poorly maintained safety curtain had let an explosive gas mixture build up, and the mine's operator was later prosecuted and fined.
• Keppel Cove dam burst, 1927
  night of 28–29 October 1927 · Flooding / Inundation · Cumbria
  After a night of exceptional rainfall and gale-force winds, the earth dam supplying Greenside Mine's hydro-electric power at Keppel Cove was overtopped and burst, sending a flood down into Glenridding village that wrecked shops, bridges and a hotel — four hotel staff were rescued from a flooding basement.
• Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery Inrush
  7 September 1950 · Flooding / Inundation · East Ayrshire · 13 fatalities
  A sudden inrush of liquefied peat and moss flooded Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery on the evening of 7 September 1950, trapping 129 miners underground; 116 were led to safety over the following three days in one of the most dramatic rescues in British mining history, but 13 died.
• Leadhills (Minehill) suffocation, 1817
  1817 · Gas / Asphyxiation · South Lanarkshire · 7 fatalities
  Seven miners were suffocated by fumes from a pumping engine at the Minehill workings at Leadhills in 1817 — a disaster local accounts say discouraged mining there for years afterwards.
• Levant Mine man-engine disaster
  20 October 1919 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Cornwall · 31 fatalities
  During a shift change at Levant Mine, a link between the man-engine's reciprocating rod and its surface beam broke, collapsing the engine down the shaft while 130-150 miners were using it.
• Lewis Merthyr Colliery explosion, 1956
  22 November 1956 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 9 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at Lewis Merthyr Colliery on 22 November 1956 killed nine men and injured five more, after methane that had accumulated undetected in an unventilated roof-fall cavity was ignited by a falling stone striking a steel roof support.
• Llay Main Colliery Explosion
  5 December 1924 · Explosion · Wrexham · 9 fatalities
  At about a quarter past one on the morning of Friday 5 December 1924, gas ignited in the North Two Yard district of Llay Main Colliery, near Wrexham. The flame travelled only twenty or thirty yards, but nine men and boys died in it — including the fireman who had fired the shot that set it off. The other 407 men underground got out. The divisional inspector’s report to Parliament found the district’s ventilation inadequate and criticised the practice of relying on exhaust air from a haulage engine to ventilate working places.
• Lofthouse Colliery disaster, 1973
  21 March 1973 · Flooding / Inundation · West Yorkshire · 7 fatalities
  About three million gallons of water burst into the South 9B district of Lofthouse Colliery from abandoned 19th-century workings in the early hours of 21 March 1973, killing seven men. Only one body was ever recovered.
• Maerdy Colliery explosion, 1885
  23 December 1885 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 76 fatalities
  An explosion in the North West dip workings at Maerdy Colliery on 23 December 1885 killed around 76-81 men, with roughly 750-961 men underground at the time.
• Magpie Mine suffocation of three Maypitt miners
  1833 · Gas / Asphyxiation · Derbyshire · 3 fatalities
  Three miners from the neighbouring Maypitt mine suffocated after Magpie miners lit fires underground to smoke them out during a dispute over a shared lead vein — the origin of the mine's 'Widow's Curse' story.
• Maltby Main Colliery explosion, 1923
  28 July 1923 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 27 fatalities
  An explosion tore through Maltby Main Colliery at 9.15am on Saturday 28 July 1923, a mile from the pit bottom, while men were working to seal off a stubborn underground gob fire. Twenty-seven died; only one body was recovered at the time. The disaster became known locally as 'Black Saturday'.
• Manvers Main Colliery explosion, 1945
  4 March 1945 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 5 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion in the Meltonfield seam at Manvers Main Colliery on 4 March 1945 killed five men after a damaged power cable, left connected and re-energised, ignited gas that had escaped past a ventilation failure.
• Marine Colliery explosion, 1927
  1 March 1927 · Explosion · Blaenau Gwent · 52 fatalities
  An underground gas and coal-dust explosion in the Black Vein seam at Marine Colliery killed around 52 men in the early hours of 1 March 1927, one of the major South Wales colliery disasters of the interwar period.
• Markham Colliery explosion, 1937
  21 January 1937 · Explosion · Derbyshire · 9 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at Markham Colliery, ignited by a faulty electrical coal-cutter after a roof break released trapped gas, killed 9 men by carbon monoxide poisoning on 21 January 1937.
• Markham Colliery explosion, 1938
  10 May 1938 · Explosion · Derbyshire · 79 fatalities
  Runaway tubs colliding with steel roof supports dislodged a damaged electrical cable at Markham Colliery's Blackshale Pit, sparking a coal-dust explosion that killed 79 men on the night of 9-10 May 1938 — the worst of the colliery's three disasters.
• Markham Colliery shaft accident, 1973
  30 July 1973 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Derbyshire · 18 fatalities
  A descending cage carrying miners at Markham Colliery's No.3 shaft failed to slow before reaching the pit bottom on 30 July 1973, after a fatigue-cracked brake rod fractured; 18 men were killed and 11 seriously injured.
• Mauricewood Colliery fire, 1889
  5 September 1889 · Fire · Midlothian · 63 fatalities
  An underground fire at Mauricewood Colliery, near Penicuik, on 5 September 1889 killed 63 of the 70 men and boys working the pit that day, one of the worst mining disasters in Scottish history; it took over six months to recover all the bodies.
• Maypole Colliery explosion, 1908
  18 August 1908 · Explosion · Lancashire · 76 fatalities
  At ten past five in the evening of 18 August 1908, an explosion of firedamp and coal dust tore through the Four Feet seam at Maypole Colliery, Abram, killing 76 men — Wigan's worst mining disaster. The blast wrecked the pithead winding gear and the fan house that ventilated the whole mine, and it took until 1917, nine years later, to recover the last body.
• Michael Colliery fire, 1967
  9 September 1967 · Fire · Fife · 9 fatalities
  A fire broke out underground during the night shift at Michael Colliery on 9 September 1967, filling the workings with thick smoke as some 300 miners fought their way to the surface. Nine men died; the bodies of three were never recovered, and remain in the sealed workings to this day. The fire closed the colliery for good.
• Mill Close Mine firedamp explosion
  3 November 1887 · Explosion · Derbyshire · 5 fatalities
  Five miners died when a shot-firer's naked flame ignited firedamp gas that had already been detected and flagged as dangerous in the days before the blast.
• Murton Colliery explosion, 1942
  26 June 1942 · Explosion · County Durham · 13 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at 8pm on 26 June 1942, in the Back-over Flat district of Murton Colliery's Five Quarter seam, killed 13 of the 15 men working there when a deputy fired six shot holes simultaneously without first checking for gas.
• Nantymwyn dynamite explosion, 1892
  28 March 1892 · Explosion · Carmarthenshire · 2 fatalities
  Two Cornish miners, William Beswetherick and John Lewarne, died after a box of gelatine dynamite they were handling caught fire and partly exploded underground — an incident that prompted a formal report to the Home Secretary by HM Inspector of Explosives.
• National Colliery explosion, 1905
  11 July 1905 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 119 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion in the Nine Feet seam workings at National Colliery, Wattstown, on the morning of 11 July 1905 killed 119 of the 122 men and boys at work there, one of the worst disasters in the history of the South Wales coalfield.
• Naval (Pen-y-Craig) Colliery explosion, 1880
  10 December 1880 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 101 fatalities
  An explosion at Pen-y-Craig Colliery (also called Naval Steam Colliery), Penygraig, on 10 December 1880 killed 101 men and boys, one of the worst disasters of the Rhondda coalfield's early expansion; a joint inquest strongly condemned the colliery's manager, Moses Rowlands, for breaches of safety rules.
• Naval Colliery explosion, 1884
  27 January 1884 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 12 fatalities
  A second explosion at the same Penygraig pit that had killed 101 men in 1880 struck on 27 January 1884, killing 12 — 11 in the blast itself and a twelfth, Daniel Thomas, who died later from suffocation sustained during the rescue attempt.
• Neston Colliery explosion, 1777
  17 May 1777 · Explosion · Cheshire · 4 fatalities
  An explosion at Neston Colliery killed four colliers, among the earliest recorded fatal mining accidents on the Wirral peninsula.
• Nine Mile Point Colliery sinking rockfall
  August 1904 · Collapse / Roof Fall · Caerphilly · 7 fatalities
  Twenty-six men were buried when a rockfall struck the workings during the sinking of Nine Mile Point's shafts in August 1904; seven were killed.
• Oaks Colliery explosion, 1847
  5 March 1847 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 73 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion at Oaks Colliery (then also known as Ardsley Main) killed 73 men and boys — at the time regarded as the first really serious explosion in the South Yorkshire Coalfield.
• Oaks Colliery explosion, 1866
  12-13 December 1866 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 361 fatalities
  Two explosions on successive days at Oaks Colliery killed 361 men and boys, including 23 volunteer rescuers who died in the second blast — for nearly fifty years the worst mining disaster in English history.
• Park Slip Colliery explosion, 1892
  26 August 1892 · Explosion · Bridgend · 112 fatalities
  An explosion of firedamp, its violence multiplied by coal dust, tore through Park Slip Colliery near Tondu on 26 August 1892, killing 112 of the men and boys underground — one of the worst single mining disasters in Welsh history.
• Parys Mountain boiler explosion, 1870
  19 October 1870 · Explosion · Anglesey
  A large Cornish boiler at the ore-crushing plant exploded during a lunch break, demolishing the building; accounts from the same local research group differ sharply on the death toll, citing either one confirmed death with 8–10 injured, or seven men killed.
• Point of Ayr Colliery shaft-sinking accident, 1952
  4 July 1952 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Flintshire · 6 fatalities
  Six men employed by a civil engineering contractor were killed on 4 July 1952 while sinking a new shaft at Point of Ayr Colliery.
• Pretoria Pit Disaster
  21 December 1910 · Explosion · Greater Manchester · 344 fatalities
  At about 7.50 on the morning of Wednesday 21 December 1910, an explosion tore through the workings of the Hulton Colliery Company’s Bank Pit No. 3 at Over Hulton, near Westhoughton — the pit universally known as the Pretoria Pit. Of the 344 men and boys underground in the affected districts, only three came out alive, and one of those died the following day. The final toll of 344 dead makes it the worst mining accident in Lancashire’s history and the third worst in Britain, after the Oaks Colliery explosion of 1866 and Senghenydd in 1913.
• RAF Fauld explosion, 1944
  27 November 1944 · Explosion · Staffordshire · 70 fatalities
  An accident during routine ordnance handling at the RAF's underground ammunition depot, built into a disused Staffordshire gypsum mine, detonated thousands of tonnes of stored explosives — the largest explosion in British history, killing at least 70 people and leaving a crater over 1,000 feet across.
• Redding Colliery inrush, 1923
  25 September 1923 · Flooding / Inundation · Falkirk · 40 fatalities
  Water from long-abandoned 19th-century workings burst through a fault into Redding Colliery's No.23 pit before dawn on 25 September 1923, trapping 66 men underground and killing 40 of them in one of Scotland's worst mining disasters.
• Seafield Colliery roof fall, 1973
  10 May 1973 · Collapse / Roof Fall · Fife · 5 fatalities
  The roof of Seafield Colliery's D22 face, a steep seam running out under the Firth of Forth, collapsed on the evening of 10 May 1973, trapping nine men and killing five.
• Seaham Colliery Explosion
  8 September 1880 · Explosion · County Durham · 161 fatalities
  At about 2.30 on the morning of Wednesday 8 September 1880, an explosion — heard at the surface "like the report of a heavy cannon" — tore through the Hutton and Maudlin seams of Seaham Colliery, County Durham. Of the 231 men and boys underground, 161 were killed by the NMRS reckoning; other accounts give 164. Nearly 200 horses and ponies died with them. All three shafts were blocked by jammed cages, fires broke out underground, and 29 bodies were never recovered: the Maudlin seam was sealed with them still in it, and the men refused to go back to work until they came out.
• Senghenydd colliery disaster, 1901
  24 May 1901 · Explosion · Caerphilly · 81 fatalities
  Three underground explosions killed 81 miners at Universal Colliery as the night shift was leaving — an earlier disaster at the same colliery that struck again, far more severely, in 1913.
• Senghenydd colliery disaster, 1913
  14 October 1913 · Explosion · Caerphilly · 440 fatalities
  An explosion in the western workings of Universal Colliery killed 439 miners and one rescuer — the worst mining disaster in British history.
• Silverwood Colliery Paddy Mail Disaster
  3 February 1966 · Haulage / Transport · South Yorkshire · 10 fatalities
  A runaway underground materials train collided with a man-riding train carrying miners to their shift at Silverwood Colliery, killing ten men and injuring 29 — one of the worst underground transport accidents in the South Yorkshire coalfield.
• Six Bells Colliery explosion, 1960
  28 June 1960 · Explosion · Blaenau Gwent · 45 fatalities
  A firedamp and coal dust explosion tore through the 'W' district of the Old Coal seam at Six Bells Colliery, Abertillery, at about 10:45 on the morning of 28 June 1960. Forty-five of the 48 men working in the district were killed. It remains the worst colliery disaster in Britain since the Second World War.
• Six Bells Colliery shaft-sinking accident, 1895
  9 February 1895 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Blaenau Gwent · 4 fatalities
  Four men sinking the shafts at Arael Griffin — later Six Bells Colliery — were killed on 9 February 1895 when they fell from the bowk carrying them down the shaft. Two more men died the same way before the sinking was finished.
• Snaefell Mine disaster
  10 May 1897 · Gas / Asphyxiation · Isle of Man · 20 fatalities
  Timber left smouldering underground filled the mine's shafts with carbon monoxide; miners descending on the morning shift were overwhelmed before they realised the danger. Sources give the death toll as 19-23.
• Snailbeach Mine winding-rope accident, 1895
  6 March 1895 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Shropshire · 7 fatalities
  Seven miners were killed at George's Shaft when the winding rope — in continuous service for eight and a half years, twice the normal replacement interval — snapped internally and dropped their cage 252 yards to the bottom of the shaft.
• South Kirkby Colliery explosion, 1935
  28 August 1935 · Explosion · South Yorkshire · 10 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion in the Barnsley Seam at South Kirkby Colliery killed 10 men in August 1935; a second explosion during the rescue effort itself burned five more, including a rescue-brigade officer who later died of his injuries.
• The Longannet Flooding
  23 March 2002 · Flooding / Inundation · Fife · 0 fatalities
  On the evening of Saturday 23 March 2002, roadways near the bottom of the Castlehill section of the Longannet Complex flooded within minutes, most likely through or around an underground dam sealing off older, worked-out ground. Fifteen men underground at the time were evacuated safely; the mine never reopened, ending deep coal mining in Scotland.
• Tilmanstone Colliery shaft accident, 1909
  1909 · Winding / Shaft Accident · Kent · 3 fatalities
  Tilmanstone's No. 2 shaft was still being sunk in 1909 when a hoisting bucket, or hoppit, fell down it, killing three men and wrecking the pumping equipment that was keeping the workings dry. A thousand gallons of water a minute poured in, and sinking was abandoned for nine months.
• Tylorstown Colliery explosion, 1896
  28 January 1896 · Explosion · Rhondda Cynon Taf · 57 fatalities
  An explosion swept Tylorstown's Nos. 6, 7 and 8 pits as the day shift descended on 28 January 1896, killing 57 men and boys, after a delayed shot fired into a gas-charged road ignited firedamp and coal dust through the dry workings.
• Valleyfield Colliery explosion, 1939
  28 October 1939 · Explosion · Fife · 35 fatalities
  An explosion in Dodd's Heading at Valleyfield Colliery on the night of 28 October 1939 killed 35 men and travelled more than 1,500 yards through the workings. The inquiry found it began as an ignition of firedamp during shot firing, and was carried by coal dust that should not have been there.
• Wellington Pit explosion, 1910
  11 May 1910 · Explosion · Cumbria · 136 fatalities
  An explosion of firedamp and coal dust in the No. 3 North District of Wellington Pit, Whitehaven, on the evening of 11 May 1910 killed 136 men and boys. The fire that followed could not be fought, and the pit was sealed two days later with the dead still inside; it was not reopened until the end of September.
• West Stanley Colliery explosion, 1909
  16 February 1909 · Explosion · County Durham · 167 fatalities
  A coal-dust explosion at West Stanley Colliery — the Burns Pit — on the afternoon of 16 February 1909 killed some 167 men and boys across four seams, among them children of thirteen and fourteen. Around thirty came out alive, twenty-six of them led out by a deputy who kept them together in the dark.
• Western Colliery sinking explosion, 1874
  7 December 1874 · Explosion · Bridgend · 5 fatalities
  A gas explosion during the sinking of Western Colliery, at what later became the Wyndham Western complex at Nantymoel, killed five sinkers on 7 December 1874.
• Wheal Jane acid mine water discharge, 1992
  13 January 1992 · Flooding / Inundation · Cornwall
  An estimated 50,000 m³ of acidic mine water burst from the flooding, abandoned Wheal Jane workings and turned the Carnon River and Fal estuary ochre-yellow — one of the most notorious mine-water pollution incidents in British history, and one still being actively treated more than three decades later.
• Wheal Mary Ann Footway Shaft Rescue
  13 November 2007 · Collapse / Roof Fall · Cornwall · 0 fatalities
  A volunteer clearing the Footway Shaft at the disused Wheal Mary Ann (recorded in the Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service's own report as 'St Mary's Lead Works') was trapped chest-deep when part of a drainage trench collapsed on him, triggering a rescue involving Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service, paramedics, an RAF Sea King helicopter and the Cornwall Air Ambulance.
• Wheal Owles flooding disaster
  10 January 1893 · Flooding / Inundation · Cornwall · 20 fatalities
  Miners broke through into the flooded, long-abandoned workings of Wheal Drea, trapping and drowning twenty men and boys underground.
• William Pit Explosion
  15 August 1947 · Explosion · Cumbria · 104 fatalities
  A shot fired in the No. 2 Dip face of the undersea workings at Whitehaven ignited firedamp and coal dust, two and a half miles out from the shaft. Fourteen men were killed by the blast. Ninety more survived it and then died of the carbon monoxide it left behind, before rescuers working through more than twenty hours could reach them.
• Woodhorn Colliery explosion
  13 August 1916 · Explosion · Northumberland · 13 fatalities
  A repairing shift of thirteen men was setting steel roof girders in the Main Seam at Woodhorn when firedamp, accumulated over a weekend of reduced ventilation, was ignited by a naked light. All thirteen died.