Heaton Main Colliery inrush, 1815

On 3 May 1815 water from the flooded workings of the old Heaton Banks colliery broke into Heaton Main Colliery, near Newcastle, and closed the bottom of its only shaft. Seventy-five men and boys were trapped. The pit took nine months to drain, and the first body was not reached until January 1816.

Cause

Water from the Heaton Banks workings, abandoned in 1745 and long since filled, broke through the coal barrier at a point where a dyke disturbed the strata.

Contributing factors

The colliery had one shaft, and its workings dipped towards it, so the water flowed to the shaft bottom and cut off the only way out. Boreholes into the old waste had been plugged when water came, and the barrier was thought strong enough; it failed at a fissure no one knew of.

What happened

The water broke in at about half-past four on a Wednesday morning in the north-west of the workings. Men near the spot ran to the shaft and got out, warning the underviewer, Mr Miller, who went to raise the alarm among those in the higher workings; he did not escape. The water stood nineteen fathoms up the shaft, and by the Friday thirty-three, though three engines were drawing 1,200 gallons a minute. Seven old shafts on Heaton Banks fell in. The trapped men and boys had spring water and had killed one of the horses for food; the contemporary account judged that foul air killed them, probably within a day or two, while the Tyne and Wear HER says they starved or succumbed to the foul air. When the workings were reached, ten bodies and two dead horses lay at a crane in the rise workings, and George Dawson was found sitting against a brick stopping with his arms folded. The youngest of the dead were seven. John Thew died with his sons George and William; a younger son, John, was among those who escaped.

Rescue & recovery

Attempts to reach the men through other workings, and through an old shaft in front of Heaton Hall, failed: the old shafts had choked or were full of foul air. The pit was pumped out by three engines, one of 130 horsepower. The first body, that of William Scott, a furnaceman, was brought to bank on 6 January 1816, and the rest were found in the following weeks.

Investigation & inquiry

John Buddle told the 1835 Select Committee on Accidents in Mines that the water came from the waste abandoned in 1745, that the barrier of coal had been judged able to hold back thirty fathoms of water, and that the breakthrough came at the last tapping, where a fissure ran through it. It was thought the accident could not have been avoided. George Johnson, later viewer at Heaton, described to the Committee the practice of driving exploring drifts ahead of the workings where old wastes lay.

Legal & regulatory aftermath

Unknown.

Changes to practice & legislation

Unknown.

Memorials & commemoration

Thirty-nine of the dead were buried in trenches at Wallsend church on 29 February 1816 (the Tyne and Wear HER gives 59 at St Peter's, Wallsend), and others at Long Benton. The spinney on the site of the High or E Pit was later planted with a tree for each life lost. William Thew's tin candle-box, scratched with a message to his mother, was shown around the country by Leigh Richmond and later the Sunday School Union to raise money for her.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Galloway gives seventy-five victims; Mathias Dunn, who examined the mine after the disaster, wrote in 1848 of about ninety. (disputed) ²
• Thirty-nine bodies were interred in trenches at Wallsend church on 29 February 1816; the HER gives the remains of 59 laid to rest at St Peter's, Wallsend. (disputed) ^3,2

Recorded claims

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

• Seventy-five persons, forty-one men and thirty-four boys, lost their lives, with the whole stock of horses. ^1,2
• Galloway gives seventy-five victims; Mathias Dunn, who examined the mine after the disaster, wrote in 1848 of about ninety. (disputed) ²
• Thirty men escaped and 75 were trapped; it took nine months to drain the mine, and they were reached in January 1816. ³
• Buddle told the Select Committee the breakthrough came at the last tapping, at a fissure in the rock he and the others did not know of. ²
• Thirty-nine bodies were interred in trenches at Wallsend church on 29 February 1816; the HER gives the remains of 59 laid to rest at St Peter's, Wallsend. (disputed) ^3,2
• The spinney on the former High or E Pit was planted in commemoration, a tree for each life lost. ³
• William Thew scratched a message to his mother on his tin candle-box: 'Fret not, dear mother, for we were singing while we had time.' ^1,2

Related terminology

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

• Bad Air (hazard involved)
  The trapped men died of foul air.
• Drift (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s investigation: “…Heaton, described to the Committee the practice of driving exploring drifts ahead of the workings where old wastes lay.”
• Fathom (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the narrative: “…in the higher workings; he did not escape. The water stood nineteen fathoms up the shaft, and by the Friday thirty-three, though three engines…”
• Inrush (direct cause)
  Water from old workings broke in.
• Viewer (contextual relationship)
  Buddle and Johnson, viewers, gave evidence.

Sources

1. (secondary) Heaton Disaster (quoting contemporary accounts) — Newcastle University Library
2. (secondary) Heaton Colliery Inrush - Newcastle-on-Tyne - 1815 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) Heaton Colliery (Heaton Banks) (HER 4149) — Tyne and Wear HER (Sitelines)

Record created: 21 September 2026 · Last researched: 22 September 2026