Berry Hill Colliery roof fall, 1888

On 14 September 1888 a fall of roof at Berry Hill Colliery, Henry Warrington's pit at Stoke-on-Trent, killed two colliers, G. Evans and G. Leese.

Cause

A fall of roof.

What happened

Berry Hill Colliery, in the North Staffordshire coalfield at Stoke, was worked in 1888 by Henry Warrington. On 14 September that year a fall of roof killed two of its colliers, recorded in the inspector's list as G. Evans and G. Leese.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• On 14 September 1888 a fall of roof killed two colliers, G. Evans and G. Leese, at Berry Hill Colliery, Stoke. ^1,2,3
• The colliery belonged to Henry Warrington. ^2,3
• Both men were killed by a fall of roof. ^2,3

Related terminology

Mining terms this disaster is structurally linked to, with the nature of the relationship.

• Colliery (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “On 14 September 1888 a fall of roof at Berry Hill Colliery, Henry Warrington's pit at Stoke-on-Trent, killed two colliers, G.…”
• Roof Fall (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “On 14 September 1888 a fall of roof at Berry Hill Colliery, Henry Warrington's pit at Stoke-on-Trent,…”

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this disaster.

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Berryhill Colliery (UK) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Colliery Disaster: Berry Hill, 14 September 1888 — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) 1880s L: Ian Winstanley's alphabetical list of mining victims — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's list of mining victims)

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026