MineArchiveSurface / Tip Failure disasters
Spoil-tip or surface structure failure, e.g. Aberfan-type events — distinct from underground collapse.
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6 disasters, in date order.
| Disaster | Date | Type | Region | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860s | ||||
| Shocking Pit Accident at Frizington (1864) A temporary scaffold erected at the mouth of the Crossgill iron-ore pit collapsed, dropping three men to their deaths while three others narrowly escaped. |
10 December 1864 | Surface / Tip Failure | Cumbria | 3 |
| 1890s | ||||
| Coldberry Mine waste heap collapse, 1896 On 18 February 1896 two young ore dressers were smothered at the Coldberry lead washing, in Teesdale, when a heap collapsed on them. |
18 February 1896 | Surface / Tip Failure | County Durham | 2 |
| 1920s | ||||
| Keppel Cove dam burst, 1927 After a night of exceptional rainfall and gale-force winds, the earth dam supplying Greenside Mine's hydro-electric power at Keppel Cove was overtopped and burst, sending a flood down into Glenridding village that wrecked shops, bridges and a hotel — four hotel staff were rescued from a flooding basement. |
night of 28–29 October 1927 | Flooding / Inundation | Cumbria | 0 |
| 1960s | ||||
| Aberfan disaster, 1966 A saturated colliery waste tip above the village of Aberfan collapsed as a liquefied slurry on the morning of 21 October 1966, engulfing Pantglas Junior School and nearby houses and killing 144 people, 116 of them children — one of the deadliest disasters in British history and a direct consequence of how the colliery's own waste tips had been sited and managed. |
21 October 1966 | Surface / Tip Failure | Rhondda Cynon Taf | 144 |
| 2010s | ||||
| Cwm Ebol Reservoir Dam Breach (2012) A landslip cracked the dam wall of Cwm Ebol quarry's old mill reservoir and blocked its sluice gates, causing water to overtop the structure and prompting the precautionary evacuation of the nearby village of Pennal. |
10 June 2012 | Surface / Tip Failure | Gwynedd | 0 |
| 2020s | ||||
| Tylorstown landslip, 2020 On 16 February 2020, during Storm Dennis, the upper of two former colliery spoil heaps on the Llanwonno hillside above Tylorstown, in the Rhondda Fach, failed and flowed into the valley below; no one was hurt. |
16 February 2020 | Surface / Tip Failure | Rhondda Cynon Taf | 0 |