Pelton Colliery explosion, 1866

Cause

An explosion of firedamp, the ignition caused by a safety lamp.

What happened

Pelton Colliery at Pelton Fell had been working thirty years when, on 31 October 1866, an explosion of firedamp killed twenty-four men and boys. The museum records the ignition as having been caused by a safety lamp. Ten months earlier, on 12 January 1866, five had been killed at the same colliery by tubs. The pit worked on until 1965.

The explosion was in the Busty or Harvey seam, 94 fathoms down, which had been worked for about fifteen months from shafts of its own with locked safety lamps and no naked lights. A Guibal fan thirty feet across had been started a year before to improve the ventilation. On the Tuesday, because the barometer had fallen, the under-viewer, James Ritson, told the overmen to watch for gas, and before the fore shift went in at two the deputy John Gray examined the south side and reported it safe. At half past five, half an hour after the boys had joined the men, the south side fired and the blast went up the ventilating shaft, heard a mile and a half away. All twenty-four in that district, two deputies, ten hewers, a wood leader, four putters and seven boys, the youngest eleven, were killed, most by the afterdamp; the 160 men in the Hutton seam were untouched. Ritson and the master waterman Matthew Stoves went down with volunteers and, once the ventilation was partly restored, brought out the dead and three badly burnt survivors from near the shaft. Thirteen of the dead were buried at Chester-le-Street, where some two thousand people followed the coffins.

Rescue & recovery

The body of Henry Bateman could not be reached for days: the searchers were driven back by a fall of roof and four times by the collapse of the temporary crossing put in to restore the ventilation.

Investigation & inquiry

Inquest at the colliery schoolroom before J. M. Favell, coroner for North Durham, with Mr Atkinson, the Government inspector. Hewers said there had been gas in the pit the day before. One viewer suggested that the hewer Richardson had found his lamp on fire and snatched it up so quickly that the flame passed through the gauze. The jury found no evidence of the cause, but that the officials below ground had shown great negligence in not enforcing the rules and that the men were to blame for not carrying them out.

Recorded claims

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

• The Durham Mining Museum records the explosion of 31 October 1866 at Pelton as firedamp ignited by a safety lamp, with 24 lives lost. ¹
• Pelton had already lost five men in January of the same year, killed by tubs on 12 January 1866. ¹
• Pelton Colliery, at Pelton Fell near Chester-le-Street, worked from 1835 to 1965. ²
• The explosion was in the south side of the Busty seam, 94 fathoms down, worked with locked safety lamps. ^3,4
• Because the barometer had fallen, the under-viewer had ordered extra care with the ventilation, and the deputy John Gray had reported the south side safe. ³
• The jury found no evidence of the cause, but great negligence by the officials in not enforcing the rules, and the men to blame for not carrying them out. ⁵
• A Guibal fan thirty feet in diameter had been started on 21 October 1865. ^6,7
• Thirteen of the dead were buried at Chester-le-Street, about two thousand people following the coffins. ⁴

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: “Twenty-four men and boys died at Pelton Colliery near Chester-le-Street on 31 October 1866 in an explosion of…”
• Firedamp (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “…near Chester-le-Street on 31 October 1866 in an explosion of firedamp which the Durham Mining Museum records as ignited by a safety lamp.…”
• Safety Lamp (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “…of firedamp which the Durham Mining Museum records as ignited by a safety lamp. It was the second disaster at the pit that year: five had been…”
• Tub (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “…the second disaster at the pit that year: five had been killed by tubs in January.”

Sources

1. (primary) Pelton Colliery (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Pelton Colliery (1835-1965) — Co-Curate, Newcastle University
3. (primary) Fatal Colliery Explosion, The Times, 2 November 1866 (transcript) — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Terrible Colliery Explosion: Twenty-four Men Killed, Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser, 9 November 1866 — Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
5. (primary) The Pelton Fell Colliery Explosion (verdict), Penny Illustrated Paper, 17 November 1866 (transcript) — Durham Mining Museum
6. (secondary) Pelton Colliery Explosion – Chester-le-Street – 1866 — Northern Mine Research Society
7. (primary) The Pelton Colliery Explosion (inquest), The Times, 9 November 1866 (transcript) — Durham Mining Museum
8. (primary) Pelton Colliery disaster, 31 October 1866 — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 17 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 November 2026