MineArchiveMachinery disasters
Accidents involving mine machinery not covered by winding or haulage.
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29 disasters, in date order.
| Disaster | Date | Type | Region | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1810s | ||||
| Newbottle Colliery boiler explosion, 1815 In the summer of 1815 a new boiler at Newbottle Colliery, raising steam for the engine that drew loaded waggons up the colliery railway, burst on its first day in use while a crowd stood watching. Eleven were killed and over fifty wounded or scalded. |
1815 | Machinery | Tyne and Wear | 11 |
| 1830s | ||||
| United Hills Mine boiler explosion, 1830 An engine boiler burst at United Hills Mine (later Tywarnhayle Mine), near Porthtowan, killing nine of the thirteen people present. |
3 February 1830 | Machinery | Cornwall | 9 |
| 1850s | ||||
| Kingswood Colliery boiler explosion, 1851 On 7 June 1851 the steam boiler at the Starve-all coalpit at St George, worked by George Brain and Co. in the Kingswood coalfield, exploded and scalded eight men to death. Among them were the engineer, John Burchell, and his two sons. The contemporary verdict on Burchell was harsh: had he lived, it was said, he would have been tried for manslaughter, as one of the victims of his own recklessness. |
7 June 1851 | Machinery | Bristol | 8 |
| Trimdon Grange Colliery boiler explosion, 1857 On Sunday 20 September 1857 a surface boiler burst at Trimdon Grange Colliery, in County Durham, killing two young workers, one of them a boy of sixteen. |
20 September 1857 | Machinery | County Durham | 2 |
| Cwmbyrgwm Colliery boiler explosion, 1858 On 6 January 1858 a boiler exploded on the surface at Cwmbyrgwm Colliery, a water-balance pit near Abersychan, demolishing the engine house and killing a man and two boys. |
6 January 1858 | Machinery | Torfaen | 3 |
| Primrose Colliery Disaster, 1858 On 13 October 1858 the fumes of an engine boiler suffocated fourteen men and boys, and seven horses, underground at the Primrose Colliery near Rhos. The colliery was then owned by Morgan and Lewis, and was afterwards redeveloped as the New Primrose Colliery. |
13 October 1858 | Gas / Asphyxiation | Neath Port Talbot | 14 |
| 1860s | ||||
| Seaton Burn Colliery boiler explosion, 1860 On the morning of 2 April 1860 a boiler at Seaton Burn Colliery exploded beside a pit-head crowded with men waiting to go down, hurling its six-ton shell 150 yards across the North Road and killing four men. |
2 April 1860 | Machinery | Tyne and Wear | 4 |
| Byermoor Colliery boiler explosion, 1862 On 8 January 1862 a boiler explosion killed two men at Byermoor Colliery, in County Durham. |
8 January 1862 | Machinery | Tyne and Wear | 2 |
| Sharlston Colliery boiler explosion, 1864 On 18 June 1864 the bursting of a steam engine boiler above ground killed three at Sharlston Colliery, near Wakefield. |
18 June 1864 | Machinery | West Yorkshire | 3 |
| Wylam Colliery Boiler Explosion, 1865 A boiler explosion at Wylam Colliery killed three workers, including a 13-year-old boy, and was reported at the time in the local press. |
27 October 1865 | Machinery | Northumberland | 3 |
| Cwmbran Colliery scalding, 1866 At about half past two in the morning of 26 April 1866 a haulier bringing trams along the main horse road at Cwmbran Colliery came past the underground boilers too fast. The trams flew off the plates and knocked down the upright pipe carrying the cock used to blow the boilers through, and live steam poured out so fiercely that none of the three men there escaped. The Inspector had double cocks fitted afterwards. |
26 April 1866 | Machinery | Torfaen | 3 |
| Willington Colliery Boiler Explosion, 1867 A boiler exploded at Willington Colliery on 2 January 1867 and killed three of those working at the surface: George Farnaby, a fireman of eighteen, George Young, a screenman of seventeen, and George Webster, a screen boy of eleven. All three deaths were at the pit bank rather than underground. |
2 January 1867 | Machinery | County Durham | 3 |
| 1870s | ||||
| Parys Mountain boiler explosion, 1870 A large Cornish boiler at the ore-crushing plant exploded during a lunch break, demolishing the building; accounts from the same local research group differ sharply on the death toll, citing either one confirmed death with 8–10 injured, or seven men killed. |
19 October 1870 | Explosion | Anglesey | 1 |
| Greenfield Colliery boiler explosion, 1874 On the evening of 9 April 1874 a boiler burst at Greenfield Colliery, Hamilton; one end was flung 150 yards through the roof of the village schoolroom during a meeting, killing three children, and an engine-keeper also died. |
9 April 1874 | Machinery | South Lanarkshire | 4 |
| 1880s | ||||
| Seaton Burn Colliery boiler explosion, 1881 A steam boiler explosion at Seaton Burn Colliery on Monday 14 March 1881 killed a mason and a labourer. |
14 March 1881 | Machinery | Tyne and Wear | 2 |
| Wheal Agar Shaft Accident At about seven on the morning of 15 August 1883, a cage carrying thirteen men reached the landing brace at Wheal Agar in Illogan. One man jumped off. At that moment the capstan rope broke ten feet above the shackle, and the cage fell the length of the shaft with the other twelve men in and on it. All twelve were killed. The rope had been in use at least two years, was internally corroded where it parted, and the corrosion had been hidden by layers of tar and grease. The men were on the capstan rope at all only because the winding rope was under repair, and the agent had chosen not to send them up the ladders while the work was finished. |
15 August 1883 | Winding / Shaft Accident | Cornwall | 12 |
| 1890s | ||||
| Usworth Colliery boiler explosion, 1891 On 11 April 1891 an underground boiler exploded at Usworth Colliery, in County Durham, killing three men outright and a fourth later, after years of known corrosion had been left unmeasured. |
11 April 1891 | Machinery | Tyne and Wear | 4 |
| Foxes Bridge Colliery shaft accident Three shaftmen repairing a pump 150 yards down the Foxes Bridge shaft were killed when the bridle chains of the cage they were riding snapped and it fell; a fourth man saved himself by clutching the shaft guides. |
28 May 1893 | Winding / Shaft Accident | Gloucestershire | 3 |
| Home Farm Colliery shaft accident, 1894 At 9.20 on the night of 27 June 1894 three shaftmen at Home Farm Colliery, Larkhall, were on a scaffold hung from a crane rope in the shaft, repairing the slides below the Main Coal. Unable to lift the load in single power, the cranemen tried to shift the gearing with the scaffold still hanging, threw the crane out of gear, and the load ran away. The scaffold fell 39 fathoms and all three were killed. The Inspector blamed inexperience and a badly designed crane. |
1894 | Winding / Shaft Accident | South Lanarkshire | 3 |
| Sharlston Colliery boiler explosion, 1898 On 25 July 1898 one of a range of eleven boilers exploded at Sharlston Colliery, near Wakefield, killing two men. |
25 July 1898 | Machinery | West Yorkshire | 2 |
| 1900s | ||||
| Langton Colliery air receiver explosion, 1908 On 10 April 1908 an air receiver burst at the surface of Langton Colliery, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, as men stood near it waiting to go down the shaft, killing two datallers and injuring a third man. |
10 April 1908 | Machinery | Nottinghamshire | 2 |
| Cribbwr Fawr Colliery electrocution, 1909 On 12 August 1909 two colliers at Cribbwr Fawr Colliery, near Porthcawl, were killed by a live power cable on the main slant. The younger, stepping off the carriage that had carried the men down, steadied himself on the cable and was fatally shocked; David Thomas, walking down afterwards, was found dead further up. The cable's armour had been made live by damage from runaway trams and poor earthing. |
12 August 1909 | Machinery | Bridgend | 2 |
| 1910s | ||||
| Moorgreen Colliery Electrocution, 1913 Two men were electrocuted at Moorgreen while trying to make a defective electric coal-cutter work; a broken contact had put the 550-volt supply on to the frame and the earth through the cable pommel was broken. |
15 August 1913 | Machinery | Nottinghamshire | 2 |
| 1920s | ||||
| Nunnery Colliery Paddy Mail Accident On the afternoon of 3 December 1923 a haulage rope broke on the Main East engine plane at Nunnery Colliery while 120 men and boys were riding down it in the Paddy Mail, a train of forty-four tubs. The set ran away, gathered speed and crashed at Cain's Junction 377 yards below the starting point, some of the tubs leaving the rails. Seven men died and fifty-five were injured. The inquiry led to recommendations that ropes used for riding be limited in life, never spliced, and fitted with runaway catches. |
3 December 1923 | Haulage / Transport | South Yorkshire | 7 |
| Thorne Colliery Shaft Accident, 1926 Six sinkers were killed at Thorne Colliery on 15 March 1926 when the capstan engine holding their six-ton sinking scaffold failed and dropped it, with its ropes, to the bottom of the No. 2 shaft. It was the largest loss of life in a British mine that year, and it came three weeks after sinking proper had been completed. |
15 March 1926 | Winding / Shaft Accident | South Yorkshire | 6 |
| 1930s | ||||
| Williamthorpe Colliery Boiler Explosion, 1931 On 13 March 1931 three men were killed by a boiler explosion on the surface at Williamthorpe Colliery, in Derbyshire. |
13 March 1931 | Machinery | Derbyshire | 3 |
| Newton Colliery electrical accident, 1938 On 11 March 1938 a pan used to carry coal at Newton Colliery, Cambuslang, touched a switch-box and became live, electrocuting two miners. Two more were hurt trying to help before a man knocked the switch off with a piece of wood, and the village doctor, Anne Mitchell, went down to try to revive them. |
11 March 1938 | Machinery | South Lanarkshire | 2 |
| Britannia Colliery compressed-air main explosion, 1938 On 10 April 1938 the main compressed-air pipe supplying Powell Duffryn's Rhymney Valley collieries burst while three men were repairing a joint beside Britannia Colliery, Pengam. The foreman boilermaker John Hammersley and the welder Roland Bond were killed outright and the fitter Frank Jones was seriously injured. |
10 April 1938 | Machinery | Caerphilly | 2 |
| 1950s | ||||
| Auchengeich Colliery fire, 1959 A fire in an underground booster fan filled the return airway of Auchengeich Colliery with carbon monoxide, and a man-riding train carrying 48 miners was sent into it. Forty-seven died; one man walked out. It remains the worst mining disaster in 20th-century Scotland. |
18 September 1959 | Fire | North Lanarkshire | 47 |