Clay Cross Colliery rope accident, 1858

A new wire winding rope at Clay Cross broke near the drum on 18 January 1858 as four miners began to descend after dinner, dropping their cage down the shaft; the inspector could find no fault in the rope.

Cause

The winding rope broke near the drum; the inspector found it partly cut but could not say how.

What happened

The Clay Cross Company's pit wound coal from six in the morning until the dinner break at noon on 18 January 1858. During the break the engineman and stoker ran some slack rope off the drum to lower the spring at the rope end onto the pit bank and repair it, then drew the rope up again and left the cage on the props.

When work restarted, four miners got on the cage to go down: J. Green, 19, E. Johnson, 30, R. Stones, 18, and J. Vardy, 20. About 15 yards down the rope broke near the drum and all four were killed.

The rope was a new round wire rope, three months in use. The inspector tested the wires either side of the break and found them tough and the rope able to bear ten times the load that had broken it. The fracture looked as if it had been partly cut, but nothing in the machinery could have done it; if it was done maliciously it must have been while the men were on the pit bank. He tried kinking the rope and could not break it, and called the company's machinery and management as good as they could be.

Investigation & inquiry

Described by the inspector of mines in his report for 1858, with tests of the broken rope.

Recorded claims

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

• On 18 January 1858 four miners going down a Clay Cross shaft after the dinner break were killed when the winding rope broke about 15 yards down. ^1,2,3
• The dead were J. Green, 19, E. Johnson, 30, R. Stones, 18, and J. Vardy, 20. ^4,3
• The round wire rope was new, worked for three months, 1⅛ inches thick, and wound a load of 35 hundredweight over a 10-foot pulley and 9-foot drums. ³
• During the dinner hour the engineman and stoker had run slack rope off the drum to repair the spring at the rope end. ³
• The inspector found the wire tough and the rope able to bear ten times the weight that broke it; the break looked partly cut, but whether by malice or a kink he could not trace. ³
• The colliery belonged to the Clay Cross Company. ^1,2,3

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: “…1858 as four miners began to descend after dinner, dropping their cage down the shaft; the inspector could find no fault in the rope.”
• Coal (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “The Clay Cross Company's pit wound coal from six in the morning until the dinner break at noon on 18 January…”
• HM Chief Inspector of Mines (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s investigation: “Described by the inspector of mines in his report for 1858, with tests of the broken rope.”
• Heapstead (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the narrative: “…slack rope off the drum to lower the spring at the rope end onto the pit bank and repair it, then drew the rope up again and left the cage on the…”
• Shaft (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s summary: “…miners began to descend after dinner, dropping their cage down the shaft; the inspector could find no fault in the rope.”

Sources

1. (secondary) 1850s G: Ian Winstanley's alphabetical list of mining victims — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's list of mining victims)
2. (secondary) Mining deaths 1850-1859, surnames S (Ian Winstanley) — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's mining deaths lists)
3. (primary) Colliery accident, Clay Cross, 18 January 1858 — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Clay Cross Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026