Rockingham Colliery roof fall, 1901

On 2 September 1901 the roof of a travelling road fell at Rockingham Colliery, near Hoyland, killing a collier, George Carnnety, 48, and a filler, George Kelley, 18.

Cause

A fall of roof in a travelling road.

What happened

Rockingham Colliery, near Hoyland in the Barnsley coalfield, was worked by Newton, Chambers and Co. On 2 September 1901 part of the roof of a travelling road, the way by which men walked to and from the faces, fell on two of its men, the collier George Carnnety, aged 48, and the filler George Kelley, aged 18, killing both. It was the fourth fall at the colliery to take two lives at once since 1884.

Recorded claims

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

• On 2 September 1901 a fall of roof in a travelling road killed a collier, George Carnnety, and a filler, George Kelley, at Newton, Chambers and Co.'s Rockingham Colliery. ^1,2,3
• George Carnnety was 48 and George Kelley 18. ^4,1,2,3
• The fall was in a travelling road, the way the men walked to and from their work. ^1,2

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: “On 2 September 1901 the roof of a travelling road fell at Rockingham Colliery, near Hoyland, killing a collier, George Carnnety, 48, and a filler,…”
• Filler (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “…near Hoyland, killing a collier, George Carnnety, 48, and a filler, George Kelley, 18.”
• Roof Fall (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s cause: “A fall of roof in a travelling road.”

Photographs & further reading

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

Sources

1. (primary) Colliery Disaster: Rockingham, 2 September 1901 — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) 1900s C: Ian Winstanley's alphabetical list of mining victims — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's list of mining victims)
3. (secondary) 1900s K: Ian Winstanley's alphabetical list of mining victims — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's list of mining victims)
4. (primary) Rockingham Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026