Disasters

Explosions, floods, collapses and other major incidents at UK mines — including significant post-closure incidents in abandoned workings. Each record is researched to the same standard as a mine or terminology entry, not just a casualty count.

19 disasters in the 1840s, of 505.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
St David's Colliery explosion, 1840 Late in June 1840 firedamp exploded underground at St David's Colliery near Llanelli, burning twenty-six men and boys. Five were killed, among them a boy of ten, and a sixth, David Samuel, fourteen, died of his injuries on 15 July. Survivors escaped only by retreating at once from the part of the mine where the gas fired. A newspaper said no one was to blame.	27 June 1840	Explosion	Carmarthenshire	6
Mostyn Colliery explosion, 1840 An explosion at Mostyn Colliery, Flintshire, in the summer of 1840 blew large lumps of coal up a shaft 390 feet deep. Eight men were killed outright and a man and a boy were brought out badly burnt; eleven died in all and five more were seriously injured, leaving six widows and thirty fatherless children.	July 1840	Explosion	Flintshire	11
Quarter Colliery Explosion On 16 March 1841 an explosion underground at Quarter Colliery, near Hamilton in Lanarkshire, killed every one of the seven people working below at the time, one of them a boy. Four more men died in the attempt to reach them, so that the rescue cost almost as many lives as the explosion itself. Eleven died in all. The pit belonged to the Duke of Hamilton and was operated by the ironmasters Colin, Dunlop & Co.	16 March 1841	Explosion	South Lanarkshire	11
Thornley Colliery Explosion, 1841 A firedamp explosion in the Harvey Seam 'A' Pit at Thornley Colliery on 5 August 1841 killed nine workers, eight of them boys aged between 9 and 17, after gas accumulated when a young trapper left his ventilation door open too long.	5 August 1841	Explosion	County Durham	—
Dinas Colliery explosion, 1844 On the first morning of 1844 the miners of Dinas went down wishing each other 'Blwyddyn newydd dda i chi!' Shortly afterwards the village of Storehouse heard a roar it had never heard before. Twelve men and boys, the youngest nine years old, had died in Walter Coffin's Middle Pit — the first great explosion in the Rhondda. The stall where it began had been examined not by the overman but by the manager's young son, whom the overman had taken down with him; the coroner invited the jury to find manslaughter and the jury returned accidental death.	1 January 1844	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	12
Garden Pit Inundation, Landshipping, 1844 On the afternoon of 14 February 1844 the Daucleddau broke into the Garden Pit at Landshipping, whose workings ran a quarter of a mile out beneath the estuary. Fifty-eight people were below; thirty-three were cut off at once and forty drowned. Eighteen were brought up in the coal buckets by putting the horses to a gallop on the whim. It remains the worst loss of life in Pembrokeshire mining.	14 February 1844	Flooding / Inundation	Pembrokeshire	40
Haswell Colliery explosion, 1844 At three o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday 28 September 1844 an explosion at Haswell Colliery in east Durham killed ninety-five of the ninety-nine men and boys below ground, and every pony with them. It was the worst explosion the Durham coalfield had yet seen, and it came weeks after the end of the Great Strike of 1844. The inquiry found no blame attributable to anyone, leaving the owners with no liability to the widows and orphans, and the Home Office sent Michael Faraday and Charles Lyell north to attend the inquest.	28 September 1844	Explosion	County Durham	95
Wern Colliery Explosion, Cwmafan, 1844 A naked candle carried into a gas-filled stall at this Cwm Avon coal level ignited firedamp, killing three men outright; a fourth died soon after while helping recover the bodies.	Early December 1844	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	4
West Moor Colliery explosion, 1845 A blower had been struck a fortnight earlier when a fault was cut through at West Moor colliery, Killingworth. On the evening of 3 April 1845 the gas fired at the end of one of the headings, killing four men and six boys. The viewer, John Wales, told the inquest that lamps were not needed in the pit; the men had Davy lamps and lived, and the belief was that a boy sent down ahead of them with a naked light set the gas off. The coroner could find no fault with the ventilation and the jury returned accidental death.	3 April 1845	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	10
Black Vein Colliery explosion, 1846 On 14 January 1846 the naked flame of a candle fired a pocket of firedamp in one district of the Black Vein Pit at Risca, killing 35 men and boys, most of them suffocated by the afterdamp. Men working elsewhere in the pit felt only a strong current of air. It was the first of the explosions that earned the colliery its name as the death pit.	14 January 1846	Explosion	Caerphilly	35
East and North Wheal Rose Flooding Disaster A sudden, violent thunderstorm flooded East Wheal Rose and the neighbouring North Wheal Rose within minutes on 9 July 1846, drowning 39 miners in the deadliest single mining disaster in Cornwall's history.	9 July 1846	Flooding / Inundation	Cornwall	39
Oaks Colliery explosion, 1847 A firedamp explosion at Oaks Colliery (then also known as Ardsley Main) killed 73 men and boys — at the time regarded as the first really serious explosion in the South Yorkshire Coalfield.	5 March 1847	Explosion	South Yorkshire	73
Felling Colliery explosion, 1847 Shortly after nine on the evening of 22 June 1847 an explosion at Felling Colliery killed six miners, four outright and two from their injuries, and eighteen horses. It began not in the coal but at an underground haulage engine, whose fire had been banked with the damper shut so that it made gas like a retort. The jury found accidental death and asked for the damper to be pinned open.	22 June 1847	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	6
Gwaun Cae Gurwen Colliery shaft accident, 1847 Six colliers who had gone down the pit at Gwaun-cae-Gurwen at six on the Tuesday evening signalled with the horn to be raised at three the next morning. The engineman, Morgan Davies, alone at the top, saw the flash of their candles as the carriage neared the surface and then heard it crash back down: a link of the chain with a small flaw had broken, and the men fell nearly ninety fathoms. All six were killed.	1 September 1847	Winding / Shaft Accident	Neath Port Talbot	6
Eaglesbush Colliery Explosion, 1848 Gas that had gathered in the old stalls of Eaglesbush Colliery near Neath exploded soon after three o'clock on the afternoon of Wednesday 29 March 1848, and the gas in the other stalls exploded after it. About thirty men and boys were at work and twenty were killed, most of them by afterdamp; some were found to have been trying to get out along a level with their way blocked by wagons. The colliery had no artificial ventilation and naked lights were allowed. The inquest returned accidental death.	29 March 1848	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	20
Werfa Colliery explosion, 1849 On Monday 14 May 1849 a man carrying a Davy lamp went into a heading at Werfa Colliery, above Aberdare, that was fouled with gas, and a boy followed him with a candle. The gas exploded at the candle. Two young colliers were killed and three more died of their burns; twelve were injured in all. It was the colliery's second explosion in a week, and the inquest jury asked for a fireman to inspect the workings before the men went in.	14 May 1849	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	5
Hebburn Colliery Explosion, 1849 A firedamp explosion in the Bensham seam at Hebburn Colliery on the morning of 5 June 1849 killed 33 men and boys, with almost everyone in the affected north-west district of the pit killed outright.	5 June 1849	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	—
Cwmnantddu Colliery Explosion, 1849 An explosion of firedamp in the New Pit at Cwmnantddu — the colliery later known as Llanerch — killed five men on the morning of 10 August 1849. Two of them were a father and his son of about fourteen.	10 August 1849	Explosion	Torfaen	5
Lletty Shenkin Colliery Explosion, 1849 An explosion of firedamp at Lletty Shenkin Colliery, Cwmbach, on the afternoon of Friday 10 August 1849 killed fifty-two of the 112 men and boys underground. Only about five were burned; the rest were suffocated by the afterdamp. The inquest returned accidental death with a rider that the colliery's old workings should be separately ventilated and never connected with the intake air.	10 August 1849	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	52