Howdon Pans Colliery inundation, 1838

On 1 September 1838 a large body of water burst into the Bensham seam workings of Howdon Pans (Percy Main) Colliery, near North Shields, drowning three men and four horses.

Date	1 September 1838
Mine	Percy Main Colliery
Region	Tyne and Wear
Type	Flooding / Inundation
Fatalities	3 (Three men: Robert Thornton, 67, back overman, and two not named. Four horses were also lost.)
Context	During active mining

Sepia engraving of a colliery with a smoking timber headframe, sloping wooden screens and sheds, and figures standing by a fire on a coal heap in front. — Percy Main, or Howdon Pans, Colliery, engraved after Thomas Hair for his Views of the Collieries (1844) T. H. Hair, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Cause

A large quantity of water burst into the workings.

What happened

Percy Main Colliery, known also as Howdon Pans, lay about a mile and a half from North Shields and worked the Tyne seams under the bed of the river, down to the Bensham seam at about 160 fathoms. On 1 September 1838 a large quantity of water burst into the workings, and three men and four horses lost their lives.

One of the men was Robert Thornton, a back overman of 67, who was suffocated in the water in the Bensham seam. The other two are not named.

Recorded claims

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

On 1 September 1838 a large quantity of water burst into Howdon Pans Colliery, killing three men and four horses. ¹
Robert Thornton, 67, a back overman, was suffocated in water in the Bensham seam at Percy Main Colliery on 1 September 1838. ²
Howdon Pans, or Howden Panns, was another name for Percy Main Colliery, whose deepest workings were in the Bensham seam under the Tyne. ²

Related terminology

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

Colliery (contextual relationship)
Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “…burst into the Bensham seam workings of Howdon Pans (Percy Main) Colliery, near North Shields, drowning three men and four horses.”
Fathom (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s narrative: “…under the bed of the river, down to the Bensham seam at about 160 fathoms. On 1 September 1838 a large quantity of water burst into the…”
Overman (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s narrative: “…horses lost their lives. One of the men was Robert Thornton, a back overman of 67, who was suffocated in the water in the Bensham seam. The…”

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this disaster.

Fordyce's Local Records (Internet Archive) (reference)

T. Fordyce's 1867 register of remarkable events in Northumberland and Durham, with the contemporary account.

View source

Sources

(primary) Local Records; or, Historical Register of Remarkable Events, vol. 3 (T. Fordyce, 1867) — Internet Archive
(primary) Percy Main Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 5 October 2026 · Last researched: 6 October 2026