Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery explosion, 1936

At about half past three on the morning of Thursday 6 August 1936 an explosion in the Lidgett seam at Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery near Barnsley trapped fifty-eight men. One was brought out alive and rushed to hospital; the rest died, most of them in the gas that swept the workings after the blast. It was the worst mining disaster in South Yorkshire, and the last of that scale in the county. A memorial with half a pulley wheel was dedicated in Athersley Memorial Park in 1979 and unveiled by Arthur Scargill.

Cause

An explosion in the Lidgett seam during the latter part of the night shift, while men were at repair work and preparing for the coming shift. The rescuers found no trace of fire but gas standing in the return drift.

What happened

The explosion came at about half past three in the morning on Thursday 6 August 1936, in the Lidgett seam, which lies about 350 yards below ground and runs two feet three to two feet nine inches thick. The seam was reached by an intake drift falling at about one in three for 200 yards from the Haigh Moor seam at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft, 288 yards deep, and had been worked 2,230 yards to the south-east; the effects of the explosion reached some 1,800 yards along it, from the face to the point where the one survivor was found. Fifty-eight men were trapped.

Rescue & recovery

Rescue parties went down early and by evening had still not travelled the whole of the workings. They found no trace of fire, but gas in the return drift, tubs swept into heaps of wreckage and fall after fall of roof. It was early apparent that any man who had escaped the force of the explosion could not have escaped the gas that swept the workings afterwards. One man was brought out alive, so badly injured that he was taken at once to Barnsley Hospital.

Investigation & inquiry

A formal inquiry followed, as Wikipedia's account of the colliery records.

Legal & regulatory aftermath

Messages of sympathy were sent by the King, the Prime Minister and the Secretary for Mines.

Memorials & commemoration

A memorial including a commemorative plaque and half a pulley wheel was dedicated in 1979 in what became Athersley Memorial Park, on land reclaimed from the colliery. It was unveiled by Arthur Scargill, then president of the Yorkshire NUM, in the presence of Roy Mason, MP for Barnsley.

Recorded claims

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

• An explosion in the Lidgett seam at about half past three in the morning of Thursday 6 August 1936 trapped fifty-eight men at Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery near Barnsley; one was brought out alive but so badly injured that he was rushed to Barnsley Hospital. ^1,2
• The Lidgett seam lies about 350 yards below ground and is two feet three to two feet nine inches thick; the intake drift ran down to it from the Haigh Moor seam at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft, 288 yards deep, at a gradient of about one in three, and the effects of the explosion extended some 1,800 yards along the seam. ¹
• Rescue parties went down early and had not travelled the whole of the workings by evening; they found no trace of fire but gas in the return drift, tubs swept into heaps of wreckage and fall after fall of roof, and it was soon plain that any man who survived the force of the explosion could not have survived the gas that swept the workings after it. ¹
• Messages of sympathy were sent by the King, the Prime Minister and the Secretary for Mines; a memorial with a commemorative plaque and half a pulley wheel was dedicated in 1979 in Athersley Memorial Park and unveiled by Arthur Scargill, then president of the Yorkshire NUM. ^1,2

Sources

1. (secondary) The Wharncliffe Woodmoor Disaster (15 August 1936) (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery — Wikipedia

Record created: 17 September 2026 · Last researched: 20 September 2026