Wallsend Colliery Explosion

At about two o'clock on the afternoon of 18 June 1835, an explosion tore through Wallsend Colliery on Tyneside and killed 102 men and boys — the worst of ten separate disasters recorded at a pit already notorious for them. The youngest of the dead was eight. Among them were trappers and putters of eleven, seventeen and nineteen, and whole families were hit: the Applebys lost Henry, a putter of seventeen, and James, a trapper of eleven. Many of the dead lie in unmarked graves in the churchyard of St Peter's, Wallsend.

Cause

Explosion of firedamp in the workings. No source consulted in this pass establishes the point of ignition.

What happened

The colliery was worked in its deep High Main seam, the thick and valuable bed that had made Wallsend coal famous and which was also gassy and dangerous. The Durham Mining Museum's roll for this colliery records explosions in 1785, 1786, 1790, 1799, 1803 and, fourteen years before this one, in 1821, when 52 died and the youngest killed was a boy of seven. The 1835 explosion was larger than all of them together bar one. Its victims are recorded by name, age and occupation, and the list is a plain account of how such a pit was staffed: trappers of eleven sitting alone at ventilation doors, putters in their teens moving tubs, helpers-up, hewers. Three more died in a further explosion here in December 1838, and five as late as August 1925.

Investigation & inquiry

No record of a formal inquiry has been located in this pass. The disaster fell in the period before the Coal Mines Inspection Act of 1850, when there was no government inspectorate with power to investigate, and the surviving public record of the event is chiefly the roll of the dead.

Memorials & commemoration

The dead were buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church, Wallsend, a substantial number of them in unmarked graves. The Durham Mining Museum records burial places for many of the individuals killed.

Recorded claims

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

• 102 men and boys were killed, the youngest aged eight.
• The Durham Mining Museum's entries for individual victims give the time of death as 2:00 p.m. on 18 June 1835.

Related terminology

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

• Coal (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…High Main seam, the thick and valuable bed that had made Wallsend coal famous and which was also gassy and dangerous. The Durham Mining…”
• Colliery (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “…on the afternoon of 18 June 1835, an explosion tore through Wallsend Colliery on Tyneside and killed 102 men and boys — the worst of ten separate…”
• Firedamp (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s cause: “Explosion of firedamp in the workings. No source consulted in this pass establishes the…”
• Putter (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s summary: “…nineteen, and whole families were hit: the Applebys lost Henry, a putter of seventeen, and James, a trapper of eleven. Many of the dead lie…”
• Trapper (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s summary: “…hit: the Applebys lost Henry, a putter of seventeen, and James, a trapper of eleven. Many of the dead lie in unmarked graves in the churchyard…”

Photographs & further reading

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

Sources

1. (secondary) Wallsend Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Wallsend Colliery (1778-1935) — Co-Curate, Newcastle University

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026