Redheugh Colliery explosion

Twenty months after Redheugh Colliery was abandoned, its sealed shafts exploded. Flame shot about seventy feet above the winding shaft, the timber seals were thrown sixty yards, a rope wheel from the fan shaft landed ninety yards away in a school yard and more than two hundred panes of glass were broken in nearby houses. Nobody was hurt, and the cause was never established.

Cause

Not established. HM Inspectors of Mines concluded that the evidence pointed to an explosion of gas, or of gas and coal dust, in the workings of the abandoned mine, but the cause remained, in the inspector’s own word, a mystery.

Contributing factors

A fire underground was the one known antecedent. While one of the shafts was being dismantled some months earlier, a piece of burning timber fell down the pit; water was run down the shaft for some days to put it out and, no smoke being seen at either shaft afterwards, the fire was assumed extinguished. The seams had been worked with safety lamps throughout and the roads were dry and dusty. When dismantling finished, both shafts were walled around to a height of ten feet and sealed over with planks.

What happened

Redheugh Colliery, in the west end of Gateshead, was abandoned on 28 May 1927 and its two shafts — 16 ft and 10 ft in diameter, both 570 yards deep to the Brockwell seam — were walled and sealed with timber. At about half past one on the afternoon of Saturday 5 January 1929 a violent explosion took place beneath them. Flame shot out of the winding shaft to an estimated seventy feet, followed by dense smoke. The timber seals were blown sixty yards away; a rope wheel nine inches across, known to have been fixed in the fan shaft, was thrown ninety yards into a school yard; and more than two hundred panes of glass were smashed in the dwelling houses round about. No one was injured.

Investigation & inquiry

The explosion was investigated and written up in the annual report of HM Inspectors of Mines for 1929, which set out the sealing of the shafts, the earlier underground fire and the distances the debris travelled, and recorded that the cause remained unexplained. The Tyne and Wear historic environment record carries the same account.

This account describes a post-closure incident in abandoned workings. It is not an access guide, and deliberately omits route detail beyond what's needed to understand what happened.

Recorded claims

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

• At about 1.30 p.m. on 5 January 1929 a violent explosion took place in the abandoned workings, flame shooting out of the winding shaft to an estimated seventy feet, followed by dense volumes of smoke. ¹
• The timber seals over the shaft were blown sixty yards away, a nine-inch rope wheel from the fan shaft was thrown ninety yards into a school yard, and over two hundred panes of glass were smashed in neighbouring houses. ^1,2
• The inspectors concluded that the event pointed to an explosion of gas, or gas and coal dust, in an abandoned mine, but recorded that investigations left the cause a mystery. ¹
• Some months before the explosion, while one of the shafts was being dismantled, a piece of burning timber fell down the pit; water was run down the shaft for several days and the fire was assumed to have been extinguished because no smoke was seen at either shaft. ¹

Related terminology

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

• Coal (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s cause: “…that the evidence pointed to an explosion of gas, or of gas and coal dust, in the workings of the abandoned mine, but the cause remained,…”
• Colliery (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “Twenty months after Redheugh Colliery was abandoned, its sealed shafts exploded. Flame shot about seventy…”
• Safety Lamp (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s contributing factors: “…the fire was assumed extinguished. The seams had been worked with safety lamps throughout and the roads were dry and dusty. When dismantling…”
• Shaft (contextual relationship)
  Named 11 times in this record, first in the summary: “Twenty months after Redheugh Colliery was abandoned, its sealed shafts exploded. Flame shot about seventy feet above the winding shaft, the…”

Photographs & further reading

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

Sources

1. (secondary) Redheugh Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Redheugh Colliery (HER 6189) — Tyne and Wear Historic Environment Record

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