MineArchiveCongo Pit flooding, 1895
| Date | 10 December 1895 |
|---|---|
| Mine | Coalisland Collieries |
| Region | County Tyrone |
| Type | Flooding / Inundation |
| Fatalities | 6 (William Bretland and his nephew David, both of Ashton-under-Lyne; Frederick Mitchell of Manchester; John Cooper of Ashton-under-Lyne; John McMullen of Killybrackey; and Edward Rafferty of Rossbeg.) |
| Context | During active mining (A night-time inrush at a working pit in the East Tyrone coalfield.) |
| Status | Researched |
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.
Cause
An inrush from old, abandoned water-filled shafts into the narrow coal seam the men were working.
Contributing factors
The head engineer at the colliery had raised concerns about the safety of the mine beforehand, warning specifically that there would be old shafts filled with water and that breaching one accidentally would be disastrous.
What happened
The Emerald Pit at Congo was working a narrow seam when, at ten past one on the morning of 10 December 1895, huge volumes of water broke in and drowned the six men at the face. What makes it a hard story is that it had been foreseen: the colliery's own head engineer had warned that the ground held old shafts standing full of water, and that accidentally breaching one would be catastrophic. Four of the six were Englishmen who had come over for the work — two from Ashton-under-Lyne who were uncle and nephew, another from Ashton and one from Manchester.
Rescue & recovery
A relief fund was set up for the families and £940 raised to be shared among the relatives.
Investigation & inquiry
No formal inquiry report has been located in this pass; the account rests on the coalfield's own documented history.
Memorials & commemoration
The Congo Pit was shut down in 1900, five years after the disaster.
Recorded claims
Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.
- Water broke in from old abandoned water-filled shafts at 1.10 a.m. on 10 December 1895, killing the six men working the narrow seam. 1
- The dead were William Bretland and his nephew David, Frederick Mitchell, John Cooper, John McMullen and Edward Rafferty. 1
- The colliery's head engineer had warned beforehand that old water-filled shafts lay in the ground and that breaching one would be disastrous. 1
- A relief fund raised £940 for the families; the Congo Pit closed in 1900. 1
Related terminology
Mining terms this disaster is structurally linked to, with the nature of the relationship.
- Coal (contextual relationship)
Automatically linked by scripts/link_terms.py: exact-phrase match in the record's own recorded text. - Inrush (direct cause)
Water standing in abandoned shafts released into a working face — the hazard the colliery's engineer had named in advance.
Sources
- (primary) Digging Deep: A History of the East Tyrone Coalfields — Lough Neagh Partnership
Record created: 24 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 August 2026