Lumley Park Colliery explosion, 1727

In 1727 an explosion at Lumley Park Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, killed sixty people, one of the worst colliery disasters of the early eighteenth century in the north-east.

Cause

An explosion in the workings.

What happened

The collieries of Lumley Park, near Chester-le-Street, were already described in 1667 as the greatest in the north, their pits draining into a common drain worked by engines. In 1727 an explosion there cost 60 lives.

Daniel Defoe, passing through Chester-le-Street, was told of an explosion in or near Lumley Park not long before: workmen driving a new working broke into a cavity left by old workings, the pent-up air blew up 'like a mine of 1,000 barrels of gunpowder' and burst out of the shaft, and nearly three score people died, one or two at the shaft bottom being blown clean out of the pit. Whether he was describing this explosion or an earlier one at Flatfield in 1708 is not certain.

What's uncertain

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

• Defoe's account may refer instead to the Flatfield Colliery explosion of 1708. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• An explosion at Lumley Park Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, in 1727 cost 60 lives. ^1,2,3
• Daniel Defoe was told at Chester-le-Street of an explosion in or near Lumley Park, when a new working broke into an old cavity, in which nearly three score people died. ³
• Defoe's account may refer instead to the Flatfield Colliery explosion of 1708. (uncertain) ³
• In 1667 the Lumley collieries were recorded as the greatest in the north, their water drained by engines into a common drain. ³

Related terminology

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

• Colliery (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “In 1727 an explosion at Lumley Park Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, killed sixty people, one of the worst…”
• Shaft (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the narrative: “…up 'like a mine of 1,000 barrels of gunpowder' and burst out of the shaft, and nearly three score people died, one or two at the shaft bottom…”

Photographs & further reading

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

Sources

1. (primary) Lumley Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Colliery Disasters 1720-29 — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Lumley Park Colliery Explosion - Chester-le-Street - 1727 — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 3 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026