Kinglassie Colliery Roof Fall 1912

A large stone fell from the roof at Kinglassie Colliery on the night of 19 August 1912, killing William Whitton, 17, and Patrick Macauley, a married man with an infant son, and injuring two other miners.

Cause

Contemporary press reports describe a large stone — estimated at anywhere from 7 hundredweight to three or four tons, depending on the account — falling from the roof onto the men as they worked on top of the wheel brae. The Durham Mining Museum's own record adds that a haulage rope had come out of its wheel, and the men were trying to ease up a set of full hutches to take the weight off the rope when the fall occurred — consistent with, and adding a probable trigger to, the roof-fall accounts.

What happened

Whitton and Macauley were caught in the heart of the fall and crushed to death; two other miners working nearby were injured, at first feared more seriously than turned out to be the case. The pits were still relatively newly sunk, and coal had only recently begun to be drawn from a few of the seams; sinking them had already been made difficult by large quantities of water in the strata.

Recorded claims

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

• Durham Mining Museum's own record states: 'The rope of a cousie had got out of the wheel; five men were trying to ease up the full hutches to take the weight off the rope when a fall occurred, killing the two men.' ¹

Related terminology

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

• Coal (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…out to be the case. The pits were still relatively newly sunk, and coal had only recently begun to be drawn from a few of the seams; sinking…”
• Colliery (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s summary: “A large stone fell from the roof at Kinglassie Colliery on the night of 19 August 1912, killing William Whitton, 17, and…”
• Shaft Sinking (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…coal had only recently begun to be drawn from a few of the seams; sinking them had already been made difficult by large quantities of water in…”

Photographs & further reading

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

Sources

1. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum: Kinglassie Colliery (UK) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Kinglassie Pit — Pit K-5 — fifepits.co.uk

Record created: 29 August 2026 · Last researched: 29 August 2026