Portland Colliery Nursery Pit explosion, 1900

On 17 August 1900 men re-opening a sealed section of the Nursery Pit, about a mile from the shaft under Struthers farm, blew down the brick stopping with two shots of blasting gelatine and fired the gas behind it. They withdrew, but about an hour later a second explosion caught nine of them. John Gemmell senior died at the pithead and five more in Kilmarnock Infirmary over the next week, among them his son and the new undermanager, Andrew Johnstone.

Cause

Firedamp accumulated behind a stopping sealing old dip workings, fired when the stopping was blasted down; the cause of the second, fatal explosion was not ascertained.

Contributing factors

The section had been shut off after a fire some years earlier and gas was known to be coming from the old workings. Dynamite or gelatine was used for blasting, and although most of the party carried safety lamps it was customary in the pit to use naked lights.

What happened

Nine men had started at six in the morning working towards the Wellington Pit. Shortly after noon miners some way off heard a loud report and hurried to the place, where they found eight men lying unconscious and so burned about the face as to be almost unrecognisable. The ninth, Alexander Dunlop, working apart from the others, had run through burning gas and made his own way out; he thought that if the others had come with him instead of going for their clothes they would have been all right.

Rescue & recovery

The injured were brought up and dressed in the engine house by Dr John Robertson of Kilmarnock and Dr Baxter of Hurlford, and taken by ambulance waggon to Kilmarnock Infirmary. The manager, Mr Gilmour, was in Kilmarnock at the time and came at once; Captain Hill of the burgh police kept order among crowds of several hundred at the pithead.

Memorials & commemoration

The two Gemmells, father and son, were given a public funeral by the Hurlford Tent of Rechabites, their coffins followed by several hundred people.

Recorded claims

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

• Six men were killed by an explosion in the Nursery Pit on 17 August 1900: John Gemmell senior and his son John, Andrew Johnstone, James Turnbull, John Todd and Boyd Cummock, the last of them dying on 24 August. ¹
• A section of dip workings sealed by a brick stopping 30 inches thick was being re-opened; two shots of Nobel's blasting gelatine blew the stopping down and fired the gas behind it, and about an hour later a second explosion fatally injured six and injured two others. The cause of the second was not ascertained. ²
• The survivor Alexander Dunlop, the only man without a safety lamp, heard two loud reports about 12.15, ran through the flame to join the others and went to the pithead while they went to fetch their clothes; he believed there was another explosion after he left. ¹

Related terminology

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

• Firedamp (direct cause)
  Gas behind a stopping exploded.
• Fireman (contextual relationship)
  The fireman of the section died.
• Naked Light (contributing factor)
  Naked lights were customary in the pit.
• Room and Pillar (contextual relationship)
  The main coal was worked by stoop and room.
• Safety Lamp (contextual relationship)
  All but one of the party used safety lamps.
• Shot-firing (direct cause)
  Shots blew down the stopping.

Sources

1. (primary) Nursery Pit, Kilmarnock, 17 August 1900 — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum - Portland Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 13 September 2026