Elemore Colliery explosion, 1886

Cause

An explosion of coal dust, the ignition caused by shot firing.

What happened

Elemore Colliery at Easington Lane, opened in 1827, was one of the older pits of east Durham. On 2 December 1886 an explosion of coal dust, ignited by shot firing, killed twenty-eight men and boys. The colliery continued to work for nearly ninety years afterwards, closing in 1974.

The pit belonged to the Hetton Coal Company and worked the Lady Main, Low Main and Hutton seams; it was lit underground by electric light. At five minutes to three in the morning, with 38 men below and the deputies waiting at the bank to go down before the day shift, a loud rumbling was heard far from the pit, and the pit was found to have fired. The cages were useless, and the certified manager, Thomas Lishman, led the first exploring party down in the hoop and kibble. Near the shaft they found the furnaceman Thomas Spence and Ralph Lawson, who watched the electric light, dead, and three men who had been enlarging the intake airway badly burnt; one of them, Robert Appleby, died almost at once. Twenty men were brought out on the first day, three of them dead, but heavy falls blocked the way to the eighteen others.

Henry Johnson, in the Lady Low Main, was knocked off his seat and lay low with his face covered; his sons Harry and William and his grandson William came through the afterdamp to him, and some three hours later they were brought up the shaft. Exploring parties worked on through falls of stone and coal; sixteen bodies were recovered on the Saturday, and on the night of Tuesday 7 December the last, James Carr's, was found in the Lady Hutton seam, making twenty-six dead. Of about fifty ponies in the lower seam sixteen were found alive. John Luke, one of the burnt men from the shaft bottom, died on 18 December, the twenty-eighth death.

At the inquest at Hetton-le-Hole the manager said the pit was neither gassy nor dusty, that the only naked light was the rapper's, and that he could not say how the explosion had happened; the men who had been below said the blast came down the shafts. Two official reports followed in June 1887. Haden Corser, who watched the inquest for the Home Secretary, held that it was entirely an explosion of coal dust in pure air, fired by a shot, and saw no grounds for a prosecution; the inspector, Thomas Bell, thought gas had fired after shot-firing and that coal dust had intensified and spread it. Arnold Lupton later described it as one of the most extraordinary coal-dust explosions on record: it began on a main intake haulage road within 200 yards of the downcast, where shots were being fired to enlarge the road, and the flame ran down the shaft into two lower seams and along 3,500 yards of dry, dusty intake roads, but never into the returns or the working places.

Rescue & recovery

Exploring parties under the manager, Thomas Lishman, went down in the hoop and kibble because the cages were wrecked; they brought out twenty men on the first day and worked on through heavy falls in the Hutton and Low Main seams, with managers and viewers from neighbouring collieries and a party from Seaham with breathing apparatus. The last body was found on 7 December.

Investigation & inquiry

Inquest at the Colliery Hotel, Hetton-le-Hole, before Crofton Maynard, coroner for Easington Ward, with Haden Corser for the Home Office and representatives of the Durham Miners' Association and the Miners' National Union. Two reports were published in June 1887 (C. 5065): Corser put it down to coal dust fired by a shot; Thomas Bell to gas fired after shot-firing, extended by coal dust.

Memorials & commemoration

A memorial to the twenty-eight stands in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels, Hetton Lyons, where many of the dead were buried.

Recorded claims

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

• The Durham Mining Museum records the explosion of 2 December 1886 as one of coal dust, the ignition caused by shot firing, with 28 lives lost. ¹
• Elemore Colliery at Easington Lane worked from 1827 until 1974. ²
• The explosion came at five minutes to three in the morning, when 38 men were in the mine. ³
• The last body, James Carr's, was found in the Lady Hutton seam late on 7 December, bringing the deaths to twenty-six. ⁴
• John Luke, burnt in the explosion, died on 18 December, the twenty-eighth death. ^5,6
• Haden Corser's report put the explosion down to coal dust fired by a shot; the inspector Thomas Bell's to gas fired after shot-firing and extended by coal dust. ⁷
• The flame travelled about 3,500 yards along intake haulage roads in three seams, but not into the returns or working places. ⁵
• A memorial to the dead stands in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels, Hetton Lyons. ⁸

Related terminology

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

• Coal (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “…Colliery, Easington Lane, on 2 December 1886 by an explosion of coal dust which the Durham Mining Museum records as having been ignited…”
• Colliery (contextual relationship)
  Named 4 times in this record, first in the summary: “Twenty-eight men and boys were killed at Elemore Colliery, Easington Lane, on 2 December 1886 by an explosion of coal dust…”
• Shot-firing (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “…which the Durham Mining Museum records as having been ignited by shot firing. The colliery, opened in 1827, worked on until 1974.”

Sources

1. (primary) Elemore Colliery (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Elemore Colliery (1827 - 1974) — Co-Curate, Newcastle University
3. (primary) The Times, 3 December 1886: Fatal Colliery Explosion (Elemore), transcribed by the Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) The Elemore Colliery Disaster: Recovery of the Last Body, South Wales Daily News, 9 December 1886 — South Wales Daily News (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
5. (primary) Elemore Colliery explosion, 2 December 1886 (names, and Arnold Lupton's 1893 account) — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) The Elemore Colliery Explosion: The Twenty-Eighth Death, Weekly Mail, 25 December 1886 — Weekly Mail (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
7. (primary) The Times, 16 June 1887: The Elemore Colliery Explosion (the reports), transcribed by the Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
8. (primary) Memorial to the 1886 Elemore Colliery disaster, St Michael and All Angels, Hetton Lyons — Durham Mining Museum
9. (primary) The Times, 21 December 1886: The Elemore Colliery Explosion (inquest), transcribed by the Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
10. (primary) The Times, 23 December 1886: The Elemore Colliery Explosion (inquest), transcribed by the Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
11. (primary) The Times, 4 December 1886: The Fatal Colliery Explosion (Elemore), transcribed by the Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 17 September 2026 · Last researched: 2 November 2026