MineArchiveQuarter Colliery Explosion
| Date | 16 March 1841 |
|---|---|
| Mine | Quarter Colliery |
| Region | South Lanarkshire |
| Primary type | Explosion |
| Associated types | Rescue |
| Fatalities | 11 (Seven people underground at the time died instantaneously, one of them a boy. Four more died attempting the rescue, bringing the toll to eleven.) |
| Context | During active mining (The pit was in normal working, with a small number of men and boys below.) |
On 16 March 1841 an explosion underground at Quarter Colliery, near Hamilton in Lanarkshire, killed every one of the seven people working below at the time, one of them a boy. Four more men died in the attempt to reach them, so that the rescue cost almost as many lives as the explosion itself. Eleven died in all. The pit belonged to the Duke of Hamilton and was operated by the ironmasters Colin, Dunlop & Co.
Cause
An underground explosion. No source consulted establishes the point or means of ignition.
What happened
The seven below ground when the explosion occurred are recorded as having died instantaneously. What followed is the part worth remembering: four other workers went in after them and did not come out. Deaths among rescuers were a recurring feature of nineteenth-century explosions, where afterdamp — the oxygen-poor, carbon-monoxide-laden air left behind by an explosion — killed men who entered workings that looked survivable. No source consulted in this pass records the names of the dead or the detail of the rescue attempt.
Rescue & recovery
Four workers died while trying to rescue the seven. No further detail of the rescue has been located.
Investigation & inquiry
No record of an inquiry has been located. The explosion predates the Coal Mines Inspection Act of 1850, so there was no government inspectorate with power to investigate, and Scotland had no equivalent provision at this date.
Recorded claims
Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.
- Seven died instantaneously, one of them a boy, and four more died attempting the rescue — eleven in all.
Related terminology
Mining terms this disaster is structurally linked to, with the nature of the relationship.
- Afterdamp (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s narrative: “…were a recurring feature of nineteenth-century explosions, where afterdamp — the oxygen-poor, carbon-monoxide-laden air left behind by an…” - Colliery (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s summary: “On 16 March 1841 an explosion underground at Quarter Colliery, near Hamilton in Lanarkshire, killed every one of the seven people…”
Sources
- (secondary) Quarter — Buddlepit Mine Database
- (secondary) Quarter, South Lanarkshire — Wikipedia
Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026