Snydale Colliery goaf ignition

Two colliers, Robert Poole and William Leuty, died of burns some days after taking naked candles into the goaf at Snydale Colliery and igniting gas there in 1870; a third man, the blacksmith Ambrose Webster, died in a separate incident the same year after taking a flame lamp underground instead of a safety lamp.

Cause

Robert Poole, 36, a collier, died on 12 December 1870 of an explosion of gas, per the Durham Mining Museum. Featherstone's Collieries, an independently researched local-history blog, gives a fuller account naming a second victim, William Leuty, 28, also a collier, and describing how the explosion happened: the two men took naked candles into the goaf -- the mine's worked-out waste area, where gas commonly accumulates -- and ignited gas there, both dying some days later of their burns rather than at the scene. DMM's own list, headed as an admittedly incomplete collection of names, does not include Leuty; his death is not independently confirmed by a second source, though Poole's is, and the two men's deaths are reported together as one incident.

Contributing factors

The same year, in a separate incident dated 1 June 1870 by DMM, the colliery blacksmith Ambrose Webster, 35, died of 'an explosion of gas in a borehole in stone drift'. Featherstone's Collieries gives a different-sounding cause for the same death -- that Webster took an ordinary flame lamp underground instead of a safety lamp and so ignited the firedamp himself -- which is not necessarily inconsistent with DMM's borehole location, but neither source resolves the other into a single clear account, so both are kept here rather than one being silently dropped. This is recorded as contributing context to the same colliery's record in the same year, not as part of the Poole/Leuty incident itself.

Recorded claims

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

• Robert Poole, 36, a collier, died on 12 December 1870 of an explosion of gas at Snydale Colliery. ^1,2
• A second man, William Leuty, 28, also a collier, died alongside Poole in the same incident; both had taken naked candles into the goaf and ignited gas there, dying some days later of their burns. Leuty does not appear on DMM's own (self-described incomplete) fatality list for the colliery, so this detail rests on Featherstone's Collieries alone. (uncertain) ²
• In a separate incident on 1 June 1870, blacksmith Ambrose Webster, 35, died of an explosion of gas in a borehole in stone drift (DMM); Featherstone's Collieries instead describes him taking a flame lamp underground instead of a safety lamp and igniting firedamp -- the two accounts are not reconciled. (disputed) ^1,2

Related terminology

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

• Colliery (contextual relationship)
  Named 5 times in this record, first in the summary: “…burns some days after taking naked candles into the goaf at Snydale Colliery and igniting gas there in 1870; a third man, the blacksmith Ambrose…”
• Drift (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s contributing factors: “…Webster, 35, died of 'an explosion of gas in a borehole in stone drift'. Featherstone's Collieries gives a different-sounding cause for the…”
• Firedamp (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s contributing factors: “…flame lamp underground instead of a safety lamp and so ignited the firedamp himself -- which is not necessarily inconsistent with DMM's borehole…”
• Goaf (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “…Leuty, died of burns some days after taking naked candles into the goaf at Snydale Colliery and igniting gas there in 1870; a third man, the…”

Sources

1. (secondary) Snydale Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Featherstone's Three Collieries: Snydale — Featherstone's Three Collieries (Irvin Saxton)

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 15 September 2026