Wellsway Colliery shaft accident

Twelve men and boys were hooked to the winding rope at the top of Wellsway pit on the morning of 5 November 1839. When their full weight came onto it the rope broke and they fell 756 feet. Only one body was whole enough to be recognised. The rope was nearly new and bore what looked like knife or chisel marks drawn across the fibres, and the inquest found it had been cut by a person or persons unknown.

Cause

The winding rope broke as the full weight of twelve men and boys came onto it. The inquest verdict was that the rope had been cut by a person or persons unknown.

Contributing factors

The rope was nearly new, six months in use and worked with 37 hundredweight. A newspaper reporter established that sixteen had been wound up the previous night where usually only ten were allowed, which would have meant the dead shift was overmanned by two — an explanation for a strained rope that the rumour of malice outlasted.

What happened

The men and boys were hooked to the top and the rope broke asunder, precipitating the twelve to the bottom of the pit, some 756 feet. Only one body was sufficiently whole to be recognised; the rest were smashed and dissevered, limb from limb. Three of the twelve were Keevills, three were Langfords, and half of them were boys. Amos Dando was twelve. Mark Keevill, James Keevill junior, Alfred Langford and Leonard Hooper Dowling were all thirteen. Farnham Langford was fifteen and James Pearce seventeen.

Rescue & recovery

The rope was made ready again and three men went down as soon as possible. Thomas Hill, one of them, described what they found as a scene resembling an abattoir: 'It presented a mass of steaming human gore.'

Investigation & inquiry

George Kingston, the bailiff, told the inquest the rope had seemed perfectly secure. He was at the pit when it happened; the rope broke all of a sudden and its end came down with a great crash on the shed where he and others stood. He had left the pit at a quarter past eight the night before, had seen nothing untoward, slept at the works and heard no noise in the night, and knew of no ill-feeling between the men, having always believed them to be on a friendly footing. Thomas James was in the pit at four in the morning; as he pulled back the runner he heard Will Summers say 'How the rope jumps,' and with that they all fell to the bottom. John Fricker confirmed what Kingston and James said. The verdict was that the rope had been cut by a person or persons unknown.

Legal & regulatory aftermath

No hue and cry seems to have been raised to find the alleged culprit, and in all probability there was none. But the merest suspicion that one existed was enough to prevent any prosecution for manslaughter through negligence.

Memorials & commemoration

Four thousand people attended the funeral, in torrential rain. The Wellsway proprietors supplied the coffins, each with a velvet pall; the vicar of Midsomer Norton gave the ground free; funeral knells were rung at Kilmersdon and Radstock as well as Midsomer Norton. The works manager led a procession with a clerk and bailiff before each coffin, four miners carrying and six supporting each, a hundred and twenty pallbearers in all. The Keevills and the Langfords were buried with their mates in one grave in Midsomer Norton churchyard. A stone was raised at the expense of the masters of the Wellsway Coalworks, reading: 'In this grave are deposited the remains of the twelve under mentioned sufferers all of whom were killed at Wellsway Coal Works on the 5th November 1839, by the snapping of the rope as they were on the point of descending into the pit. The rope was generally thought to have been maliciously cut.' The Somerset Miners renewed the original stone in 1965.

Recorded claims

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

• The inquest returned a verdict that the rope had been cut by a person or persons unknown. No perpetrator was ever identified and no search appears to have been made for one. The Northern Mine Research Society's account observes that in all probability there was no culprit, but that the suspicion of one was enough to prevent any prosecution for manslaughter through negligence. ^1,2
• A newspaper reporter discovered that sixteen had been brought up the previous night where usually only ten were allowed, meaning the dead shift had been overmanned by two. That is a plain explanation for a strained rope, and both accounts note that the rumour of deliberate cutting persisted despite it. ^1,2
• James Keevill, 41; Mark Keevill, 13; James Keevill junior, 13; Richard Langford, 45; Farnham Langford, 15; Alfred Langford, 13; James Pearce, 17; William Summers, 24; William Adams, 20; Leonard Hooper Dowling, 13; Amos Dando, 12; and John Barnett, 41. ^1,2,3

Related terminology

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

• Coal (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s memorials: “…twelve under mentioned sufferers all of whom were killed at Wellsway Coal Works on the 5th November 1839, by the snapping of the rope as they…”

Photographs & further reading

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

Sources

1. (secondary) Wellsway Colliery Shaft Accident, Midsomer Norton, 1839 — Northern Mine Research Society, via the Internet Archive
2. (secondary) The Wellsway Colliery Catastrophe of 1839 — Midsomer Norton and Radstock Nub News
3. (secondary) Wellsway, Midsomer Norton, 5 November 1839 — Durham Mining Museum

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