Blackwell A Winning Colliery explosion, 1895

At about four o'clock on the morning of Monday 11 November 1895 an explosion ran through the main haulage road of the Low Main seam at Blackwell A Winning Colliery, near Alfreton. Seven of the 23 men on the Sunday night repair shift were killed. A shot of gunpowder fired to remove a projection in the roadway had raised and ignited the coal dust.

Cause

A shot of gunpowder, fired in the side of the main haulage road 418 yards from the downcast pit bottom to remove a projection the haulage rope was rubbing on, blew out. The jury found it overcharged. The Inspector of Mines and the expert witnesses held that it had fired the coal dust lying in the road.

Contributing factors

The haulage roads were dry and dusty and were damped only by water barrels. The loaded tubs, drawn by rope at 12 miles an hour against the intake air, were swept of their fine dust, which settled on the roof and sides and packed the cracks of the broken strata. Gunpowder had been used for blasting since the pit opened, stallmen and contractors held certificates to fire shots anywhere in the mine, and naked lights were general: firedamp had been reported only twice in the ten months before.

What happened

Twenty-three men went down at midnight on Sunday 10 November to prepare the workings for the Monday day shift. Among their jobs was to take off a piece of the roadside where the tail rope was rubbing, and John Jones went down to fire a shot there. At about four in the morning officials elsewhere in the pit felt a concussion. By the place where the shot had been fired the searchers afterwards found the bodies of Jones, Shaw and Gibson and a dead pony harnessed to two loaded tubs, an empty water barrel stood on end, the men's blasting tools and powder can in refuge holes, and a few yards on a piece of timber laid across the rails, the usual signal that a shot was about to be fired.

Rescue & recovery

The manager and under-manager, who lived close by, went down at once. The haulage road was blocked by a large fall and they had to go round by the return airway, which was full of noxious gas. The Inspector of Mines, Arthur Stokes, arrived at ten o'clock and went down with the manager of a neighbouring colliery; they found doors blown out, heavy falls and broken tubs, and met an earlier party exhausted at a road junction, who had found one official dead and brought his body out. A second party found five bodies in the haulage road.

Investigation & inquiry

The inquest was held at Blackwell before the deputy coroner, Dr Albert Green. The jury found that the explosion 'was caused by an overcharged shot of gunpowder but the evidence fails to clearly define the secondary cause', attached no blame to the management and praised the courage of the exploring party. Stokes replied that every expert witness had recognised coal dust as that cause, and put the jury's failure down to 'the general reluctance of many mining men and others to admit coal dust alone can be fired'. He and Chester Jones, a barrister, reported on the explosion to the Home Secretary.

Recorded claims

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

• Seven men were killed by an explosion in the Low Main seam at Blackwell A Winning on 11 November 1895. ^1,2
• The jury found the explosion was caused by an overcharged shot of gunpowder and that the evidence failed to define the secondary cause. ²
• The explosion was one of coal dust, ignited by shot firing. ^1,2
• The shot was fired in the main haulage road 418 yards from the downcast pit bottom to remove a projection the tail rope was rubbing against. ²
• Twenty-three night-shift men went down at midnight on 10 November and the explosion happened at about 4 a.m. ²
• The jury attached no blame to the management. ²

Related terminology

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

• Guibal Fan (contextual relationship)
  The pit was ventilated by a 45-foot Guibal fan, which was running normally at the time.
• Haulage (contextual relationship)
  Named 7 times in this record, first in the summary: “…morning of Monday 11 November 1895 an explosion ran through the main haulage road of the Low Main seam at Blackwell A Winning Colliery, near…”
• Return Airway (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the contributing factors: “…The loaded tubs, drawn by rope at 12 miles an hour against the intake air, were swept of their fine dust, which settled on the roof and…”
• Stone Dusting (contextual relationship)
  The roads were damped only with water barrels; the dust that carried the explosion lay on the roof, sides and in the cracks of the roadway.
• Tub (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the contributing factors: “…were dry and dusty and were damped only by water barrels. The loaded tubs, drawn by rope at 12 miles an hour against the intake air, were…”

Photographs & further reading

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

Sources

1. (primary) Blackwell Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Blackwell "A" Winning Colliery Explosion - Alfreton - 1895 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Blackwell 'A' Winning Colliery Disaster — Healey Hero
4. (secondary) Blackwell A Winning — Blackwell Parish History

Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026