MineArchiveDisasters
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.
45 disasters in the 1880s, of 505.
| Disaster | Date | Type | Region | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leycett Colliery explosion, 1880 At about half past eight on the morning of 21 January 1880 a blown-out shot fired firedamp in the Fair Lady pit at Leycett, the Crewe Coal and Iron Company's colliery near Newcastle-under-Lyme, and sixty-two of the seventy or so men below were killed. Among them were H. R. Greener, the manager appointed only in October after a previous explosion, and his son George, the underlooker. The jury found no blame attributable to anyone, and recommended that blasting with powder be discontinued altogether in fiery mines while men were working in them. |
21 January 1880 | Explosion | Staffordshire | 62 |
| Garngoch Colliery explosion, 1880 On 7 July 1880 firedamp exploded in the Swansea Five Feet seam at Garngoch Colliery, Gorseinon, 205 yards down, killing five colliers and a boy of fourteen. The pit was worked with naked lights. Two of the men were driving a stall through to another that had been left idle that morning after a fall, and gas was thought to have gathered there behind the fall and fired at their lamps, though the overman had found the place clear half an hour earlier. |
7 July 1880 | Explosion | Swansea | 6 |
| Risca New Pit Explosion, 1880 At half past one on the morning of 15 July 1880, firedamp exploded at the Risca New Pit, killing 120 men and boys. Almost all of them were repairers working through the night while the colliers were at home. The blast wrecked the engine-room at the upcast shaft and damaged the ventilating fan, delaying the rescue. |
15 July 1880 | Explosion | Caerphilly | 120 |
| Bersham Colliery explosion A shot fired into the coal at the far end of No. 2 West Level on the evening of 3 August 1880 ignited a blower. The colliers tried to brush it out with brattice cloth, failed, and went up for the manager. He came down with eight others to seal the district off, and partly opened an air door to clear the smoke. That cut the ventilation to the North Level, gas built up quickly and reached the flames. Nine of the nine men who had gone down died. |
3 August 1880 | Explosion | Wrexham | 9 |
| Seaham Colliery Explosion At about 2.30 on the morning of Wednesday 8 September 1880, an explosion — heard at the surface "like the report of a heavy cannon" — tore through the Hutton and Maudlin seams of Seaham Colliery, County Durham. Of the 231 men and boys underground, 161 were killed by the NMRS reckoning; other accounts give 164. Nearly 200 horses and ponies died with them. All three shafts were blocked by jammed cages, fires broke out underground, and 29 bodies were never recovered: the Maudlin seam was sealed with them still in it, and the men refused to go back to work until they came out. |
8 September 1880 | Explosion | County Durham | 161 |
| Naval (Pen-y-Craig) Colliery explosion, 1880 An explosion at Pen-y-Craig Colliery (also called Naval Steam Colliery), Penygraig, on 10 December 1880 killed 101 men and boys, one of the worst disasters of the Rhondda coalfield's early expansion; a joint inquest strongly condemned the colliery's manager, Moses Rowlands, for breaches of safety rules. |
10 December 1880 | Explosion | Rhondda Cynon Taf | 101 |
| Chatterley Whitfield (Whitfield) Colliery explosion A smithy fire spread through the ventilation flue and ignited gas underground, and further explosions followed when ventilation was cut to fight the fire — sources give the final death toll as anywhere from 21 to 28. |
7 February 1881 | Explosion | Staffordshire | 24 |
| Abram Colliery explosion, 1881 Three minutes past noon on 19 December 1881, a report heard three miles off: firedamp had exploded in the Yard seam of the Abram Coal Company's No. 4 pit outside Wigan. Forty-one bodies were brought out and seven of those rescued alive died afterwards, making forty-eight dead — twenty-five widows and seventy-three fatherless children. The inquest jury found a sudden outburst of gas caused by weighting of the roof, but could not say how it was fired, and criticised the colliery's discipline over the relighting and relocking of lamps. |
19 December 1881 | Explosion | Greater Manchester | 48 |
| Trimdon Grange Colliery Explosion, 1882 An explosion in the Harvey seam of Trimdon Grange Colliery on the afternoon of 16 February 1882 killed 74 men and boys, among them rescuers overcome by afterdamp that travelled through the underground connection into the neighbouring East Hetton (Kelloe) colliery. |
16 February 1882 | Explosion | County Durham | 74 |
| Henwain Colliery explosion, 1882 Early on Monday 27 February 1882 an explosion in the Three Quarter workings of the Henwain Pit, Blaina, killed the fireman and four of the repairing shift he had taken in with him before examining the workings. The jury blamed the fireman's neglect and cleared the management. |
27 February 1882 | Explosion | Blaenau Gwent | 5 |
| Tudhoe Colliery Explosion At about a quarter past one in the morning of 18 April 1882, firedamp exploded in the Brockwell Seam at Tudhoe Colliery, near Spennymoor in County Durham, killing 37 men and boys and seventy horses and ponies. It happened in the gap between the night shift and the fore shift, so those below were mostly repairers and stonemen. The blast ran the full length of the intake haulage roads, between landings some 2,500 yards apart, but was confined entirely to that one seam; the Hutton and Busty workings above it, from the same shafts, were untouched. The cause was recorded as ignition probably by a naked light. |
18 April 1882 | Explosion | County Durham | 37 |
| Baddesley Colliery Explosion An underground fire, started by an unprotected steam boiler installed in the return airway, trapped nine night-shift men in the deep workings at Baddesley Colliery. The rescue effort ran for fourteen hours before a gas explosion killed twenty-three of the men attempting it, among them the colliery's owner. Thirty-two died in all. |
1 May 1882 | Explosion | Warwickshire | 32 |
| Boosbeck subsidence, 1883 Pillar extraction beneath the ironstone-mining village of Boosbeck caused widespread ground subsidence from mid-1883, damaging up to 200 houses across several streets; a 1884 court finding of improper working ruined the landowner and hastened the mine's own closure within a few years. No deaths or injuries are recorded. |
from July 1883 | Other | North Yorkshire | 0 |
| Wheal Agar Shaft Accident At about seven on the morning of 15 August 1883, a cage carrying thirteen men reached the landing brace at Wheal Agar in Illogan. One man jumped off. At that moment the capstan rope broke ten feet above the shackle, and the cage fell the length of the shaft with the other twelve men in and on it. All twelve were killed. The rope had been in use at least two years, was internally corroded where it parted, and the corrosion had been hidden by layers of tar and grease. The men were on the capstan rope at all only because the winding rope was under repair, and the agent had chosen not to send them up the ladders while the work was finished. |
15 August 1883 | Winding / Shaft Accident | Cornwall | 12 |
| Nelson Pit cage accident, Shakerley, 1883 On the morning of 2 October 1883 the winding rope's connection broke while men were being lowered down the Nelson Pit at Shakerley, Tyldesley. The cage fell 280 yards into the sump, killing the four men in it and two already in the sump. The inquest found the ring had failed from repeated shocks that could not have been detected. |
2 October 1883 | Winding / Shaft Accident | Greater Manchester | 6 |
| Moorfield Colliery explosion, 1883 At 8.50 a.m. on Wednesday 7 November 1883 a sudden outburst of firedamp exploded in the Moorfield pit between Accrington and Clayton-le-Moors, killing sixty-eight men and boys, the youngest ten, and seriously injuring thirty-nine. Men who had seen gas burning in their lamps had run to the shaft and were waiting for the cage when the blast reached them. The jury could not say how the gas was fired; the Inspector recommended abandoning the Davy lamp. |
7 November 1883 | Explosion | Lancashire | 68 |
| Cwmorthin Back Vein collapse Most of Cwmorthin's workings in the Back Vein collapsed in 1884, fracturing the ground all the way to the top of Allt-fawr and draining a lake on the summit ridge. About half the mine was left inaccessible, production nearly halved, and the company was wound up within four years. |
1884 | Collapse / Roof Fall | Gwynedd | — |
| Garnant Colliery Disaster, 1884 At about five on the morning of Wednesday 16 January 1884, ten men crowded into a cage at Garnant Colliery that was meant to carry eight. The winding rope snapped and the cage fell 225 feet to the bottom of the shaft. All ten were killed — four of them aged sixteen or under. They had come early so as to finish in time for a funeral. |
16 January 1884 | Winding / Shaft Accident | Carmarthenshire | 10 |
| Naval Colliery explosion, 1884 A second explosion at the same Penygraig pit that had killed 101 men in 1880 struck on 27 January 1884, killing 12 — 11 in the blast itself and a twelfth, Daniel Thomas, who died later from suffocation sustained during the rescue attempt. |
27 January 1884 | Explosion | Rhondda Cynon Taf | 12 |
| Mostyn Colliery Inundation, 1884 In July 1884 water from the Dee estuary broke into Mostyn Colliery in huge quantities. Pumping made no difference, because the water was coming in from the sea. Around two hundred men and boys lost their work, the colliery never reopened, and coal mining at Mostyn ended after some six centuries. |
July 1884 | Flooding / Inundation | Flintshire | 0 |
| Pochin Colliery Explosion, 1884 An explosion at Pochin Colliery in the Sirhowy valley at about nine o'clock on the evening of Saturday 8 November 1884 killed fourteen men who were repairing a pumping station underground, and all forty-three ponies stabled below. The ventilation fan was destroyed, so rescuers could not go down until the Sunday afternoon. A fifteenth man died at the surface, falling down the shaft in the crush at the pithead. The Inspector of Mines reported to the Home Secretary that the explosion was due to shot-firing; the inquest found there was no evidence to show how it had occurred. |
8 November 1884 | Explosion | Blaenau Gwent | 15 |
| Usworth Colliery Explosion, 1885 At 8.58 on the evening of Monday 2 March 1885, methane that had built up in a stone drift at Usworth Colliery was ignited by shotfiring. The coal dust, gas and air explosion that followed killed forty men outright; two more died of afterdamp while trying to reach them. Hundreds of Usworth miners were suddenly out of work. |
2 March 1885 | Explosion | Tyne and Wear | 42 |
| Great Fenton Colliery explosion, 1885 At about 7 a.m. on 8 April 1885 a blown-out shot in the Knowles seam of the Homer Pit at Great Fenton (Stafford) Colliery, Stoke-on-Trent, fired gas that had accumulated at the top of a level. Eight men and boys died, four of them of burns over the following ten days, and five were injured. The coroner's jury recommended that mines be worked without shot-firing as far as possible. |
8 April 1885 | Explosion | Staffordshire | 8 |
| Clifton Hall Colliery explosion Firedamp that had gathered in the void above a collapsing goaf reached the working places at the far end of number 2 East and was lit by a candle. The blast ran through almost the whole Trencherbone seam, and 177 or 178 men and boys died — by burns, by injury, or by the afterdamp that followed. |
18 June 1885 | Explosion | Greater Manchester | 178 |
| Apedale Colliery Explosion, 1885 A second major explosion at Apedale Colliery's Burley Pit, seven years after the 1878 disaster, killed nine men. |
20 June 1885 | Explosion | Staffordshire | 9 |
| Fforchaman Colliery runaway drams Two boys of fifteen were walking out of Fforchaman behind a train of loaded wagons on the night of Tuesday 20 October 1885 when one of the coupling chains gave way. The train ran wild and struck them, killing both on the spot. |
20 October 1885 | Haulage / Transport | Rhondda Cynon Taf | 2 |
| Maerdy Colliery explosion, 1885 An explosion in the North West dip workings at Maerdy Colliery on 23 December 1885 killed around 76-81 men, with roughly 750-961 men underground at the time. |
23 December 1885 | Explosion | Rhondda Cynon Taf | 76 |
| Easton Colliery explosion, 1886 Early on 19 February 1886, soon after the fireman had examined the Fiery or Smith's Coal Vein at Easton Colliery with a Davy lamp and reported it clear, the men went down and gas exploded near the crosscut. The damage was slight, a door blown out and some brickwork moved, but eight colliers died, three of them days later. The Inspector suspected a sudden outburst of gas from the strata or old workings, and recommended locked lamps. |
19 February 1886 | Explosion | Bristol | 8 |
| Werfa Colliery explosion, 1886 At about half past two on the afternoon of Friday 26 March 1886 an explosion in the Seven Feet vein at Werfa Colliery, Aberdare, blew away the covering at the top of the shaft. An exploring party led by the manager found three men dead 600 yards from the shaft bottom, and a fourth died of his injuries a week later. The workings below were little damaged. Safety lamps were in use, and the cause was not known. |
26 March 1886 | Explosion | Rhondda Cynon Taf | 4 |
| Bedford Colliery Explosion, 1886 A firedamp explosion at Bedford No. 2 Pit, Leigh, on Friday 13 August 1886 killed 38 men and boys. The inquest established that a miner drawing pit props had seen firedamp in his lamp and not reported it, and that a second miner, finding his own lamp firing, shook it instead of lowering it and carrying it out. |
13 August 1886 | Explosion | Greater Manchester | 38 |
| Altofts Colliery explosion, 1886 The explosion in the Silkstone seam at Altofts Colliery near Normanton on 2 October 1886 killed twenty-two men in a pit that had worked for more than twenty years without a life lost to explosion. HM Inspector Frank Wardell traced it to a shot-hole drilled in a most unskilful way, which brought down little stone but threw a great deal of flame into a roadway where coal dust lay everywhere. Recovery took ten weeks of careful work, the inquest waiting until the last body was out, and the disaster became one of the foundations of British research into coal dust. |
2 October 1886 | Explosion | West Yorkshire | 22 |
| Elemore Colliery explosion, 1886 Twenty-eight men and boys were killed at Elemore Colliery, Easington Lane, on 2 December 1886 by an explosion of coal dust which the Durham Mining Museum records as having been ignited by shot firing. The colliery, opened in 1827, worked on until 1974. |
2 December 1886 | Explosion | County Durham | 28 |
| Houghton Main Colliery shaft accident, 1886 An overwound cage struck the headframe and fell 535 yards down the shaft at Houghton Main Colliery on the morning of 30 December 1886, killing all 10 men and boys riding in it; the engineman was tried for manslaughter and acquitted. |
30 December 1886 | Winding / Shaft Accident | South Yorkshire | 10 |
| Troutbeck Park Fall of Rock, 1887 Two miners at the Troutbeck Park green slate works, John Rowlandson and Joseph Woodcock, were killed on 21 February 1887 by a large piece of rock which fell on them while they were preparing to put a shot into it. The works had employed thirteen people four years earlier. |
21 February 1887 | Collapse / Roof Fall | Cumbria | 2 |
| Udston Colliery explosion, 1887 At about nine o'clock on Saturday 28 May 1887, as men were breaking for food, an explosion swept through the Splint Coal workings of Udston Colliery near Hamilton, sending flame up both shafts. Seventy-three men and boys died, 53 burned and 20 suffocated; only two men and a pony driver in the Splint survived. H.M. Inspector Ralph Moore blamed a shot fired in secret that ignited gas and then coal dust. It is said to be Scotland's second worst coal mining disaster, and Keir Hardie called the deaths murder. |
28 May 1887 | Explosion | South Lanarkshire | 73 |
| Walker Colliery explosion, 1887 An explosion in the Brockwell seam of Walker Colliery's Ann Pit on 24 October 1887 killed eight men, six at once and two who were found alive but died later. The inspector concluded that a shot had raised coal dust carrying a little firedamp, and that the coal dust alone would probably have carried the flame. |
24 October 1887 | Explosion | Tyne and Wear | 8 |
| Mill Close Mine firedamp explosion Five miners died when a shot-firer's naked flame ignited firedamp gas that had already been detected and flagged as dangerous in the days before the blast. |
3 November 1887 | Explosion | Derbyshire | 5 |
| Cossall Colliery Roof Fall, 1888 Two boys, William Green aged fifteen and William Horton aged fourteen, went into an old gateway that was being filled up to eat their breakfast and were killed by a fall of roof. The inquest was held the next day at the Crown Inn, Awsworth. |
9 October 1888 | Collapse / Roof Fall | Nottinghamshire | 2 |
| Hyde Colliery Explosion, 1889 An explosion of firedamp in the Two-feet mine at Hyde Colliery on the morning of 18 January 1889 killed twenty-three men and boys, almost all of them by afterdamp. The men worked by naked candle under an agreement made because the pit was believed too well ventilated to hold gas; the inquest returned a verdict of accidental death. |
18 January 1889 | Explosion | Greater Manchester | 23 |
| Drakewalls Mine Entombment and Rescue, 1889 Two miners filling a worked-out area at Drakewalls Mine were buried when the sand they were releasing ran too fast. After two nights of failed attempts, a second rescue led by the pitman Thomas Chapman blasted a channel down to them with small charges of dynamite, and both were pulled out alive at midnight after food and water had been lowered 18 fathoms to them. |
5 February 1889 | Other | Cornwall | 0 |
| Bothwell Castle Colliery shaft accident, 1889 An engineman's failure to shut off steam in time sent a descending cage crashing into its seat at Bothwell Castle Colliery's No. 2 pit on 28 June 1889, killing five miners. |
28 June 1889 | Winding / Shaft Accident | South Lanarkshire | 5 |
| Alps Quarry Fall of Stone, 1889 At around midday on 15 August 1889 three men were killed at Alps Quarry, Wenvoe, while boring a shot hole about ten feet from the quarry face. Large boulders came down on them and they fell some sixty feet to the quarry bottom, where they were crushed. The inquest at Cardiff returned a verdict of accidental death. |
15 August 1889 | Collapse / Roof Fall | Vale of Glamorgan | 3 |
| Mauricewood Colliery fire, 1889 An underground fire at Mauricewood Colliery, near Penicuik, on 5 September 1889 killed 63 of the 70 men and boys working the pit that day, one of the worst mining disasters in Scottish history; it took over six months to recover all the bodies. |
5 September 1889 | Fire | Midlothian | 63 |
| Mossfield Colliery explosion, 1889 An explosion at about ten to four on the morning of 16 October 1889 at Mossfield Colliery, Longton, killed sixty-four of the seventy-seven men and boys in the Cockshead and Banbury seams, along with sixteen horses. A gob fire had been smelt in the Cockshead two days before; the manager ordered a stopping built in the main airway while men were still at work below. The jury could not say how the gas was fired, but censured the manager for not having gone down the pit himself, and the coroner told him he had systematically broken the rule requiring his daily supervision. |
16 October 1889 | Explosion | Staffordshire | 64 |
| Hebburn Colliery 'A' Pit Explosion, 1889 An improperly stemmed shothole in the Beaumont seam triggered an explosion at Hebburn Colliery's 'A' Pit in the early hours of 4 November 1889, killing six. |
4 November 1889 | Explosion | Tyne and Wear | — |