Bromley Colliery Drowning Disaster (1913)

A cotter pin worked loose in the winding gear, sending a cage 60 yards down the shaft; all three men aboard survived the fall itself but drowned in standing water before rescue.

Cause

A cotter pin in the winding gear's reversing mechanism worked itself loose, causing the cage to crash 60 yards down the shaft.

What happened

On 7 November 1913, a cotter pin in the reversing gear of the winding mechanism at Bromley Colliery, Stanton Wick, worked itself loose. The cage crashed 60 yards down the shaft with three men aboard: John Crick, 35, of Farmborough, married with two children; Herbert Hillier, 20, of Clutton; and Samuel Urch, 36, of Pensford, who left a wife and seven children. None of the three men died in the fall itself -- instead, all three drowned in a pool of standing water at the bottom of the shaft before they could be reached. It was remembered afterward as the worst single incident in the shared history of Bromley and its sister pit Pensford, run by the same company.

Rescue & recovery

No detail on the specific rescue attempt has yet been located beyond the fact that the men drowned before being reached.

Recorded claims

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

• A cotter pin in the winding gear's reversing mechanism worked loose on 7 November 1913, sending the cage 60 yards down the shaft; all three occupants -- John Crick (35), Herbert Hillier (20) and Samuel Urch (36) -- survived the fall but drowned in standing water at the shaft bottom before rescue. ¹

Related terminology

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

• Cage (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “A cotter pin worked loose in the winding gear, sending a cage 60 yards down the shaft; all three men aboard survived the fall…”
• Colliery (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…cotter pin in the reversing gear of the winding mechanism at Bromley Colliery, Stanton Wick, worked itself loose. The cage crashed 60 yards down…”
• Shaft (contextual relationship)
  Named 4 times in this record, first in the summary: “…worked loose in the winding gear, sending a cage 60 yards down the shaft; all three men aboard survived the fall itself but drowned in…”

Sources

1. (secondary) Series of accidents took a grim toll on miners across North Somerset Coalfield — Midsomer Norton & Radstock Journal
2. (secondary) Bromley Colliery (Durham Mining Museum, via Pensford and Bromley Collieries (1921) Ltd company page) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 31 August 2026