Winding / Shaft Accident disasters

Overwinding, broken ropes or chains, cage/skip accidents, and falls down an open or uncapped shaft.

See all disasters, including filtering by type.

98 disasters, in date order.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
1830s
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.	5 November 1839	Winding / Shaft Accident	Somerset	12
1840s
Cowpen Colliery shaft accident, 1841 On the afternoon of 15 March 1841, as new lessees walled the long-idle North Pit shaft at Cowpen Colliery, old timber and rubbish broke from the shaft side on to the hanging cradle. The crab holding it ran wild and the cradle smashed down on the brattice, throwing four men to the bottom; a fifth caught the sling and was hauled out.	15 March 1841	Winding / Shaft Accident	Northumberland	4
Broadmoor Colliery chain break, 1844 On 13 May 1844 eight men and boys were being drawn up the shaft of Broadmoor Colliery at Begelly, Pembrokeshire, when the tub caught on timber near the top and the chain broke. They fell to the bottom; seven died, among them a boy of eleven, and one survived.	13 May 1844	Winding / Shaft Accident	Pembrokeshire	7
Gwaun Cae Gurwen Colliery shaft accident, 1847 Six colliers who had gone down the pit at Gwaun-cae-Gurwen at six on the Tuesday evening signalled with the horn to be raised at three the next morning. The engineman, Morgan Davies, alone at the top, saw the flash of their candles as the carriage neared the surface and then heard it crash back down: a link of the chain with a small flaw had broken, and the men fell nearly ninety fathoms. All six were killed.	1 September 1847	Winding / Shaft Accident	Neath Port Talbot	6
1850s
Werfa Colliery shaft accident, 1851 At seven in the morning on Thursday 4 September 1851 the chain snapped in the balance pit at Werfa Colliery above Aberdare, and both cages fell down the shaft, 180 feet. Eleven men and boys were in the descending cage and two or three in the ascending one. Word spread quickly through the neighbourhood, but the waiting crowd soon learned that every man had been killed instantly: fourteen by Welsh Coal Mines' count, sixteen by the NMRS.	4 September 1851	Winding / Shaft Accident	Rhondda Cynon Taf	14
New Cottam Colliery shaft accident, 1853 At about seven in the morning of 21 January 1853, as men were lowered down Appleby and Co.'s New Cottam Colliery near Chesterfield, a newly fitted iron link in the chain at the rope's end snapped and they fell to the bottom. Seven died. The link had been put in the evening before and never properly tested.	21 January 1853	Winding / Shaft Accident	Derbyshire	7
Ram Hill Colliery Rope Failure (1855) A jointed winding rope broke while drawing two colliers up No. 2 Ram Hill Pit, killing both, and drew a government inspector's outright condemnation of the practice.	5 April 1855	Winding / Shaft Accident	Gloucestershire	2
Henwaun Colliery rope break, 1855 Between twelve and one on Thursday 23 August 1855 the nearly new wire winding rope at Henwaun Pit, Blaina, snapped while the hitcher and two young hauliers were being drawn up for dinner. They fell about 70 yards to the bottom and were killed.	23 August 1855	Winding / Shaft Accident	Blaenau Gwent	3
Cwmneol Colliery overwind, 1855 On 28 November 1855 the cage carrying eight men up Cwmneol Colliery's shaft at Cwmaman overshot the bank, crashed into the headgear and broke the rope, and the cage and its occupants fell 240 yards to the pit bottom. The young engine driver was tried for manslaughter and acquitted.	28 November 1855	Winding / Shaft Accident	Rhondda Cynon Taf	8
Grassmoor Colliery Sinking Accident, 1856 On 13 December 1856 two men were killed sinking a new shaft at Grassmoor Colliery, in Derbyshire, when a mass of earth near the shaft top slipped away without warning and carried the timbering down on them.	13 December 1856	Winding / Shaft Accident	Derbyshire	2
Backworth Colliery shaft accident, 1857 On 27 April 1857 three miners fell to the bottom of the shaft at Backworth Colliery, in Northumberland, when the bow of the basket they were ascending in came away from the hook.	27 April 1857	Winding / Shaft Accident	Tyne and Wear	3
Agecroft Colliery shaft accident, 1859 Seven men and boys were drawn against the winding pulley and fell down the shaft at Agecroft Colliery on 4 January 1859, after a shaft-position indicator's signal band slipped loose and the engineman, with no other way to judge the cage's position, relied on hearing the signal bell alone.	4 January 1859	Winding / Shaft Accident	Greater Manchester	7
Far Green Colliery shaft accident, 1859 An ascending cage carrying sixteen men and boys overwound fifty feet past its normal stopping point and struck the headgear pulley at Far Green Colliery on 5 November 1859, after the winding engineman was briefly distracted; ten died.	5 November 1859	Winding / Shaft Accident	Staffordshire	10
Elgin Colliery Balmule Pit accident, 1859 On 28 December 1859 four colliers were being drawn up the Balmule Pit of the Elgin Colliery near Dunfermline when stones fell on them from the side of the shaft. Two died at once and a third days later. The underground manager and the pit's roadsman were tried for culpable homicide and acquitted.	28 December 1859	Winding / Shaft Accident	Fife	3
1860s
Tawd Vale Colliery sinking inrush, 1861 On 6 March 1861 a new shaft being sunk at Tawd Vale, in Skelmersdale, broke into old, long-abandoned workings full of water, and two sinkers, Robert Gill and Thomas Wilding, were killed. The inspector noted that the signs of water in the old works had been plain to see.	6 March 1861	Flooding / Inundation	Lancashire	2
Nash and Sprinkle Colliery shaft accident Three men were killed at Nash and Sprinkle Colliery, Haverfordwest, when a counterbalanced bucket, descended out of sequence and without its counterweight, fell to the bottom of the shaft.	25 March 1861	Winding / Shaft Accident	Pembrokeshire	3
Hartley Colliery disaster, 1862 The cast-iron beam of New Hartley Colliery's pumping engine fractured and fell down the mine's single shaft during a shift changeover, blocking the only way in or out and sealing 204 men and boys underground, all of whom died of suffocation over the following days despite a sustained rescue effort. The disaster's central lesson — that a mine with only one shaft has no way out if that shaft fails — led directly to a change in the law within months.	16 January 1862	Winding / Shaft Accident	Northumberland	204
Dark Lane Colliery shaft accident, 1862 On 29 December 1862 the coupling box at the end of the winding rope broke at the Lilleshall Company's Dark Lane Colliery, in the Shropshire coalfield, and the box carrying twelve men and boys fell 290 feet to the bottom of the shaft. All twelve were killed.	29 December 1862	Winding / Shaft Accident	Shropshire	12
Botallack Mine shaft accident The chain hauling a man-carriage up the Boscawen Diagonal Shaft broke; the carriage ran back out of control and struck timber at the bottom, killing all nine men and boys aboard.	18 April 1863	Winding / Shaft Accident	Cornwall	9
Auckland Park Colliery Shaft Accident, 1863 Four sinkers were killed at the South Pit of Auckland Park Colliery on 12 September 1863 when the half cradle they were working from overbalanced. Seven men were on it, connecting cast-iron pipes to the tubbing; several went to one side to lift a heavy pipe, their weight tipped the cradle, and four of them fell about 51 fathoms into five feet of water at the bottom of the shaft. The cradle swung back level and the other three were unhurt.	12 September 1863	Winding / Shaft Accident	County Durham	4
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
Douglas Bank Colliery shaft collapse, 1865 On 4 January 1865, as the sinkers at the bottom of John G. Morris's new shaft at Douglas Bank, near Wigan, began another length at about 500 yards, some 200 yards of the shaft lining gave way and fell on them. All five were killed.	4 January 1865	Winding / Shaft Accident	Greater Manchester	5
California Pit shaft accident, 1865 On 12 September 1865, as eight men and boys rode up the California Pit of the Kirkless Hall Coal and Iron Company at Aspull, near Wigan, the wire rope slipped off the drum onto the engine shaft and was cut. Within thirty yards of the top, they fell 270 yards to their deaths.	12 September 1865	Winding / Shaft Accident	Greater Manchester	8
Cannock Chase Colliery shaft accident, 1868 On the morning of 15 May 1868 the flat wire winding rope at No. 4 Pit of the Cannock Chase Colliery snapped as eight men and boys were being lowered, dropping them to the bottom of the shaft. Six died. The inspector traced the break to a hemp 'token' wrapped round the rope that had hidden its decay.	15 May 1868	Winding / Shaft Accident	Staffordshire	6
Fochriw Colliery cage accident, 1869 On the afternoon of 6 December 1869 the cage carrying two men down No. 1 Pit at Fochriw broke away about 250 yards from the bottom, killing both; five more died in a similar accident at the colliery six weeks later.	6 December 1869	Winding / Shaft Accident	Caerphilly	2
1870s
Fochriw Colliery Winding Accident, 1870 The winding rope detached from its drum at Fochriw Colliery's No. 1 shaft, sending the cages and everyone in them plunging to the bottom and killing five men — the second such accident at the colliery within two months.	8 January 1870	Winding / Shaft Accident	Caerphilly	5
Littleburn Colliery Shaft Accident, 1872 Two sinkers, Thomas Dove and Henry Kenney, were killed at Littleburn Colliery on 5 February 1872 when the winch rope ran amain — took charge and ran away — and knocked them out of the kibble they were riding, dropping them to the bottom of the shaft.	5 February 1872	Winding / Shaft Accident	County Durham	2
Gospel Oak Colliery overwind, 1872 On 21 March 1872 two colliers were killed by an overwind at Gospel Oak Colliery, in the South Staffordshire coalfield.	21 March 1872	Winding / Shaft Accident	West Midlands	2
Hoddlesden Colliery shaft accident, 1872 On the morning of Friday 11 October 1872 two coal miners at Hoddlesden Colliery, near Darwin, got into the cage to go down No. 2 shaft. The shield joining the rope and cages to the winding drum came unkeyed and they fell about 50 yards; the younger man died at once and the elder six hours later.	11 October 1872	Winding / Shaft Accident	Lancashire	2
Springwell Pit shaft accident, Dawley, 1872 At 4.30 p.m. on 6 December 1872, as the first men of the shift were drawn up the Springwell Pit of the Coalbrookdale Company at Dawley, the winding chain broke at the pulley and eight young men fell to the bottom. A broken link had been found and riveted two days before, but the chain was never properly examined.	6 December 1872	Winding / Shaft Accident	Shropshire	8
Habergham Colliery sinking-shaft fall, 1872 On 9 December 1872 three men bricking a sinking shaft at Habergham Colliery, near Burnley in Lancashire, were killed when a tub of bricks was pushed down the shaft onto them.	9 December 1872	Winding / Shaft Accident	Lancashire	3
Woolley Colliery shaft accident, 1873 On 4 January 1873 three shaftsmen were killed at Woolley Colliery, near Barnsley, when the rope of the scaffold they were working from in the pumping shaft broke and they fell to the bottom.	4 January 1873	Winding / Shaft Accident	South Yorkshire	3
Kilton Mine Kibble Accident, 1873 Two sinkers were killed at Kilton Mine when the kibble carrying them up a sinking shaft struck a bunton and capsized after a shot-firing operation, precipitating them to the bottom just as one of the charges exploded.	23 December 1873	Winding / Shaft Accident	North Yorkshire	2
Barrow Colliery shaft accident, 1874 Five masons and sinkers drowned when a scaffold platform collapsed and dropped them 30 feet into the flooded sump of a shaft then being sunk for the new Barrow pits at Bryncethin, after a cast-iron crab winch failed.	26 September 1874	Winding / Shaft Accident	Bridgend	5
Aldridge Colliery bowk accident On 9 November 1875 two sinkers were killed at Aldridge Colliery, in the South Staffordshire coalfield, when the bow of an ascending sinking bowk snapped and the bowk and its contents fell down the shaft onto them.	9 November 1875	Winding / Shaft Accident	Staffordshire	2
Tawd Vale Colliery shaft accident, 1878 On 27 January 1878 two datallers at Tawd Vale Colliery, Skelmersdale, stepped into the hoppet at a mouthing in the shaft while the engineman was away from his engine. Their weight set the engine running and lowered them into the sump, which was full of water, and both drowned.	27 January 1878	Winding / Shaft Accident	Lancashire	2
Blantyre Colliery No. 3 Pit overwinding, 1878 At 3.25 p.m. on 5 March 1878, four months after the great Blantyre explosion, the cage bringing seven men up No. 3 pit at William Dixon's Blantyre Colliery was wound past the landing into the cross beams. Six fell back down the shaft and were killed; one clung on and survived.	1878	Winding / Shaft Accident	South Lanarkshire	6
Snydale Colliery shaft accident Eight men were killed at Snydale Colliery, near Pontefract, when the winding rope broke and a fully loaded cage fell to the bottom of the shaft.	7 March 1879	Winding / Shaft Accident	West Yorkshire	8
Alexandra Colliery overwinding accident, 1879 On the morning of 22 October 1879 the engineman at Alexandra Colliery, St Helens, started the winding engine the wrong way as a cage of nine men was being sent down, and the cage rose into the headgear and fell to the bottom of the shaft, killing seven. The Inspector advocated detaching hooks and the coroner's jury recommended them.	22 October 1879	Winding / Shaft Accident	Merseyside	7
Wheatley Hill Colliery shaft accident, 1879 On 8 December 1879 two shaftmen fell about a hundred yards from a cradle in the upcast shaft at Wheatley Hill Colliery, in County Durham, and were killed.	8 December 1879	Winding / Shaft Accident	County Durham	2
1880s
Muiredge Colliery rope break, 1880 On the stormy morning of Sunday 19 December 1880 the winding rope at Muiredge No. 1 Pit, Buckhaven, slipped off its frozen pulley and was cut on the axle, dropping two reddsmen some 80 fathoms down the shaft.	19 December 1880	Winding / Shaft Accident	Fife	2
Wheal Agar Shaft Accident At about seven on the morning of 15 August 1883, a cage carrying thirteen men reached the landing brace at Wheal Agar in Illogan. One man jumped off. At that moment the capstan rope broke ten feet above the shackle, and the cage fell the length of the shaft with the other twelve men in and on it. All twelve were killed. The rope had been in use at least two years, was internally corroded where it parted, and the corrosion had been hidden by layers of tar and grease. The men were on the capstan rope at all only because the winding rope was under repair, and the agent had chosen not to send them up the ladders while the work was finished.	15 August 1883	Winding / Shaft Accident	Cornwall	12
Little Raith Colliery overwinding, 1883 On 15 August 1883, as the men of Little Raith Colliery near Cowdenbeath were being drawn up at the end of the shift, the cage at the Dora Pit was wound past the landing and over the pulley wheels. Of the seven aboard, four died, among them Thomas Adams and his son James; the engineman was arrested.	15 August 1883	Winding / Shaft Accident	Fife	4
Nelson Pit cage accident, Shakerley, 1883 On the morning of 2 October 1883 the winding rope's connection broke while men were being lowered down the Nelson Pit at Shakerley, Tyldesley. The cage fell 280 yards into the sump, killing the four men in it and two already in the sump. The inquest found the ring had failed from repeated shocks that could not have been detected.	2 October 1883	Winding / Shaft Accident	Greater Manchester	6
Garnant Colliery Disaster, 1884 At about five on the morning of Wednesday 16 January 1884, ten men crowded into a cage at Garnant Colliery that was meant to carry eight. The winding rope snapped and the cage fell 225 feet to the bottom of the shaft. All ten were killed — four of them aged sixteen or under. They had come early so as to finish in time for a funeral.	16 January 1884	Winding / Shaft Accident	Carmarthenshire	10
Newton Colliery shaft collapse, 1884 In August 1884 the timber lining of the shaft at Newton Colliery, Newton-on-the-Moor, gave way and blocked it, and the furnaceman Thomas Riddell, at the ventilating furnace below, died in the foul air. Two days later more timber fell on the men sent to repair it, and John Purvis was knocked to the bottom and died.	12 August 1884	Winding / Shaft Accident	Northumberland	2
Houghton Main Colliery shaft accident, 1886 An overwound cage struck the headframe and fell 535 yards down the shaft at Houghton Main Colliery on the morning of 30 December 1886, killing all 10 men and boys riding in it; the engineman was tried for manslaughter and acquitted.	30 December 1886	Winding / Shaft Accident	South Yorkshire	10
Douglas Bank Colliery sinking accident, 1888 On 6 April 1888, while the shafts of Douglas Bank Colliery near Wigan were being deepened, the hoppet carrying the contractor and two sinkers swayed, struck the side and overturned. The three fell some 200 yards and killed two men at the bottom: five died.	6 April 1888	Winding / Shaft Accident	Greater Manchester	5
Bickerstaffe Colliery shaft scaffold fall, 1888 On 4 December 1888 two men fixing a pipe in the pumping shaft at Bickerstaffe Colliery, near Skelmersdale, fell down the pit when a plank of their scaffold broke under them. The plank proved quite rotten, and the man killed with the carpenter was the one whose duty it was to examine the scaffold.	4 December 1888	Winding / Shaft Accident	Lancashire	2
Cwmtillery Colliery overwind, 1889 When a cage carrying eight men was overwound at Cwmtillery Colliery on 8 June 1889, two jumped out while it hung from the detaching hooks in the headgear and fell back down the shaft; the six who stayed in were unhurt.	8 June 1889	Winding / Shaft Accident	Blaenau Gwent	2
Bothwell Castle Colliery shaft accident, 1889 An engineman's failure to shut off steam in time sent a descending cage crashing into its seat at Bothwell Castle Colliery's No. 2 pit on 28 June 1889, killing five miners.	28 June 1889	Winding / Shaft Accident	South Lanarkshire	5
1890s
Elliot Colliery Cage Fall Three men fell to their deaths at Elliot Colliery, New Tredegar, on 4 March 1892 when a bolt connecting the top of their cage snapped as they were being lowered down an 86-yard trial shaft, dropping the cage and its occupants to the bottom.	4 March 1892	Winding / Shaft Accident	Caerphilly	3
Abercynon Colliery Sinking Accident, 1893 Eight sinkers were killed by a fall while the shafts of Abercynon Colliery — then the Dowlais Cardiff Colliery — were being sunk on 23 January 1893. A ninth man, David Jones, died a month later of injuries from the same fall.	23 January 1893	Collapse / Roof Fall	Rhondda Cynon Taf	8
Foxes Bridge Colliery shaft accident Three shaftmen repairing a pump 150 yards down the Foxes Bridge shaft were killed when the bridle chains of the cage they were riding snapped and it fell; a fourth man saved himself by clutching the shaft guides.	28 May 1893	Winding / Shaft Accident	Gloucestershire	3
Burnhope Colliery winding rope break, 1893 On the night of 23 November 1893 the winding rope broke as the last cage of shifters was being lowered down the Fell Shaft at Burnhope Colliery, in County Durham, and four men were dashed to the bottom and killed.	23 November 1893	Winding / Shaft Accident	County Durham	4
Home Farm Colliery shaft accident, 1894 At 9.20 on the night of 27 June 1894 three shaftmen at Home Farm Colliery, Larkhall, were on a scaffold hung from a crane rope in the shaft, repairing the slides below the Main Coal. Unable to lift the load in single power, the cranemen tried to shift the gearing with the scaffold still hanging, threw the crane out of gear, and the load ran away. The scaffold fell 39 fathoms and all three were killed. The Inspector blamed inexperience and a badly designed crane.	1894	Winding / Shaft Accident	South Lanarkshire	3
Six Bells Colliery shaft-sinking accident, 1895 Four men sinking the shafts at Arael Griffin — later Six Bells Colliery — were killed on 9 February 1895 when they fell from the bowk carrying them down the shaft. Two more men died the same way before the sinking was finished.	9 February 1895	Winding / Shaft Accident	Blaenau Gwent	4
Snailbeach Mine winding-rope accident, 1895 Seven miners were killed at George's Shaft when the winding rope — in continuous service for eight and a half years, twice the normal replacement interval — snapped internally and dropped their cage 252 yards to the bottom of the shaft.	6 March 1895	Winding / Shaft Accident	Shropshire	7
Abercynon Colliery Shaft Accident, 1895 Six sinkers were killed at Abercynon Colliery on 9 September 1895 when the bowk they were riding struck a projection in the shaft and they were precipitated to the bottom.	9 September 1895	Winding / Shaft Accident	Rhondda Cynon Taf	6
Tynybedw Colliery bowk accident, 1895 With the winding shaft at Tynybedw Colliery in Pentre out of action, the men were brought up the upcast shaft in a bowk, a barrel wound by a haulage engine. About eight in the evening of 9 September 1895 the bowk, carrying six colliers and a conductor, caught a byat supporting the Nine Feet landing and tipped over. The six fell 73 yards to the bottom of the shaft; the conductor clung to the chains and survived.	9 September 1895	Winding / Shaft Accident	Rhondda Cynon Taf	6
Kenmuirhill Colliery shaft accident, 1896 Early on 3 February 1896 the steam pump and pipes hung in a shaft that Dunn Brothers were sinking at Kenmuirhill Colliery, near Mount Vernon, gave way. Two men standing on the platform in the shaft fell about 300 feet and were killed. A third, at the bottom, was rescued alive after three hours.	3 February 1896	Winding / Shaft Accident	Glasgow	2
Westleigh Colliery cage accident, 1896 A few minutes before six on 20 February 1896 the engineman at Westleigh Colliery, Leigh, started the engine the wrong way with eight men in the cage. The cage was drawn into the headgear, released by its safety hook, and fell 370 yards when the catches failed to hold it. All eight died.	20 February 1896	Winding / Shaft Accident	Greater Manchester	8
Little Raith Colliery rope failure, 1897 On the morning of 22 January 1897 the steel winding rope at the Dora Pit, Little Raith Colliery, snapped as two men were lowered to clear machinery from abandoned lower workings. James Graham and Hugh Thomson fell with the cage to the bottom of the 100-fathom shaft and were killed.	22 January 1897	Winding / Shaft Accident	Fife	2
Garth Merthyr Colliery overwinding, 1897 At about five o'clock on the evening of Friday 11 June 1897 a cage bringing the day shift up the Garth shaft at Maesteg was wound past the landing into the headgear; the rope pulled out of its socket and the cage fell to the bottom, killing all nine men and boys in it. Three of the nine were fourteen. The winding engine had no automatic apparatus to prevent overwinding, and the Inspector declined to recommend that detaching hooks be made compulsory.	11 June 1897	Winding / Shaft Accident	Bridgend	9
Maritime Colliery cage accident, 1899 Two colliers fell about two hundred yards to their deaths on 17 April 1899 when the cage bringing men up the Maritime Colliery's upcast shaft, in use because the downcast rope had failed, caught and tilted.	17 April 1899	Winding / Shaft Accident	Rhondda Cynon Taf	2
1900s
Milfraen Colliery cage accident, 1902 On 4 March 1902 a cage carrying men up the shaft of Milfraen Colliery, above Blaenavon, swung as it rose and struck an iron girder about 78 yards from the bottom, throwing five of them out to their deaths. Among them were two fathers and sons, the Griffiths and the Stallards, two of the dead being boys of thirteen and fifteen. The Inspector blamed slack rope jerking the cage off the bottom.	4 March 1902	Winding / Shaft Accident	Torfaen	5
Sherwood Colliery sinking accident On 22 April 1902 two sinkers were killed at Sherwood Colliery, near Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, when the balance weight of the drop door at the top of the sinking shaft came loose and fell among them.	22 April 1902	Winding / Shaft Accident	Nottinghamshire	2
Windsor Colliery Shaft Accident, 1902 A working stage collapsed during shaft-sinking at Windsor Colliery, Abertridwr, dropping eight men into a flooded sump and drowning six of them.	3 June 1902	Winding / Shaft Accident	Caerphilly	6
Tirpentwys Colliery shaft accident, 1902 On the afternoon of 1 October 1902 the winding rope at Tirpentwys Colliery's upcast shaft, near Pontypool, snapped as the twelfth cage of men was being raised from the Big Vein, and eight colliers and boys fell to the bottom. The rope had jumped the pulley after a loose board over the air-tight tower was carried into it.	1902	Winding / Shaft Accident	Torfaen	8
Deep Navigation Colliery shaft accident, 1902 A fractured cast-iron pump pipe fell from the shaft wall onto an ascending, double-decked cage carrying 32 men at Deep Navigation Colliery on 11 November 1902, killing five and injuring two.	11 November 1902	Winding / Shaft Accident	Merthyr Tydfil	5
Aldwarke Main Colliery shaft accident, 1904 At 5.20 a.m. on 23 February 1904 the winding rope broke as eight men were being lowered down the No. 2 Parkgate shaft at John Brown and Company's Aldwarke Main Colliery, near Rotherham. The cage fell some 50 yards to the bottom; seven men died and the eighth, Arthur Ramsden, recovered after months in hospital.	23 February 1904	Winding / Shaft Accident	South Yorkshire	7
Swanwick Colliery cage accident, 1904 On 29 March 1904 a cage carrying six men down the shaft at Swanwick Colliery, Derbyshire, stuck fast in its wooden conductors. Three of the men were thrown out and fell more than seventy yards to the shaft bottom; the other three held on and were rescued about an hour later.	1904	Winding / Shaft Accident	Derbyshire	3
Bold Colliery shaft accident, 1905 A cage carrying men down the shaft at Bold Colliery, St Helens, descended too rapidly on 20 January 1905, overshooting the Yard Mine level and crashing onto a sinking platform thirty yards below, killing five miners and seriously injuring fourteen more.	20 January 1905	Winding / Shaft Accident	Merseyside	5
Houldsworth Colliery Cage Accident (1906) The winding engineman lost control while lowering thirteen men in the cage at Houldsworth Colliery, Patna; the cage was violently re-raised on landing, crushing two men to death.	2 September 1906	Winding / Shaft Accident	East Ayrshire	2
Shirebrook Colliery cage accident, 1907 On 26 March 1907 a worn conductor broke as a cage of fourteen men descended Shirebrook's No. 2 shaft; the cage tilted and three men fell to the bottom. The inquest jury blamed the shaftsmen's judgment and asked for gates on cages.	26 March 1907	Winding / Shaft Accident	Derbyshire	3
Tilmanstone Colliery shaft accident, 1909 Tilmanstone's No. 2 shaft was still being sunk in 1909 when a hoisting bucket, or hoppit, fell down it, killing three men and wrecking the pumping equipment that was keeping the workings dry. A thousand gallons of water a minute poured in, and sinking was abandoned for nine months.	1909	Winding / Shaft Accident	Kent	3
Maindy Colliery cage accident, 1909 On the morning of 6 April 1909 a cage lowering men down the Maindy Colliery shaft at Ton Pentre swung, struck a garland curb and canted, throwing two men some 200 yards to their deaths.	6 April 1909	Winding / Shaft Accident	Rhondda Cynon Taf	2
Hartford Colliery cage accident, 1909 On the morning of 20 July 1909 four men lowered down the shaft at Hartford Colliery, Cramlington, fell out of the cage to the bottom and were killed: the fitters' labourers Anthony Clarke and William Dickson, the fitter Frederick Robinson and the electrical engineer John Sturdy.	20 July 1909	Winding / Shaft Accident	Northumberland	4
Naval Colliery Ely Pit cage accident, 1909 On the morning of 27 August 1909 a double-deck cage carrying 26 men down the Ely Pit of the Naval Colliery at Penygraig ran out of control when the reversing gear of the winding engine broke. It crashed into the sump, the ascending cage was pulled into the headgear, and the rope fell 525 yards down the shaft onto the wrecked cage.	1909	Winding / Shaft Accident	Rhondda Cynon Taf	5
1910s
Water Haigh Colliery shaft disaster, 1910 During the sinking of Water Haigh Colliery at Woodlesford, near Leeds, the sides of No. 1 shaft collapsed on the morning of 7 May 1910, burying and killing six men before the pit had raised any coal.	7 May 1910	Winding / Shaft Accident	West Yorkshire	6
Water Haigh Colliery shaft collapse, November 1910 Six months after the shaft disaster of May 1910, the sides of No. 1 shaft at Water Haigh gave way again on 17 November 1910. Four of the ten men at the bottom were caught by the falling shale, timber and iron rings: one was killed outright and another died of his injuries in Leeds Infirmary.	17 November 1910	Winding / Shaft Accident	West Yorkshire	2
Kemberton Colliery Pit Cage Disaster (1910) A winding rope that had been tested sound that same morning suddenly fractured during a descent at Kemberton Colliery, killing seven men and boys, three of them fourteen or younger.	Sunday night, 4 December 1910	Winding / Shaft Accident	Shropshire	7
Water Haigh Colliery scaffold collapse, 1911 On Tuesday 1 February 1911 a scaffold in No. 1 shaft at Water Haigh, then still being sunk, gave way and the foreman joiner Herbert Pickersgill fell three hundred feet to his death. Three other men on the scaffold escaped and were got out by the assistant undermanager. Pickersgill had been one of the rescuers in the shaft collapse of the previous November, and eleven weeks after his death the King awarded him the Edward Medal of the Second Class for it; the medal was given to his widow.	1 February 1911	Winding / Shaft Accident	West Yorkshire	1
Rufford Colliery Water Barrel Disaster (1913) A jammed brake lever caused a runaway winding engine to drop a five-ton water barrel some 156 yards down the sinking shaft onto a scaffold of workers below.	8 February 1913	Winding / Shaft Accident	Nottinghamshire	14
Britannic Colliery Llewellyn Pit shaft accident, 1913 At about 1.45 p.m. on Sunday 27 April 1913 the side of the new Llewellyn sinking at Gilfach Goch, beside the Trane Pit, gave way and swept seven men off their staging into the flooded sump. Four were drowned. The mechanical engineer Thomas Thomas went down on a rope and brought the other three out, for which the King decorated him.	27 April 1913	Winding / Shaft Accident	Rhondda Cynon Taf	4
Bromley Colliery Drowning Disaster (1913) A cotter pin worked loose in the winding gear, sending a cage 60 yards down the shaft; all three men aboard survived the fall itself but drowned in standing water before rescue.	7 November 1913	Winding / Shaft Accident	Somerset	3
Alvecote Colliery Cage Accident A cage ran out of control during its descent at Alvecote Colliery in 1919, killing one man and seriously injuring eighteen others; the Inspector of Mines put the cause down to management's neglect of machinery maintenance, and new screens and a new cage system followed.	1919	Winding / Shaft Accident	Warwickshire	1
Levant Mine man-engine disaster During a shift change at Levant Mine, a link between the man-engine's reciprocating rod and its surface beam broke, collapsing the engine down the shaft while 130-150 miners were using it.	20 October 1919	Winding / Shaft Accident	Cornwall	31
1920s
Sutton Manor Colliery shaft accident, 1920 On 11 May 1920 a bricksetter and a fireman fell down the shaft together and were killed at Sutton Manor Colliery, near St Helens in Lancashire.	11 May 1920	Winding / Shaft Accident	Merseyside	2
Bothwell Castle Colliery shaft accident, 1922 On 23 August 1922 two brushers were killed at Bothwell Castle Colliery, near Uddingston, when they stepped into the shaft believing the cage was there and fell to the bottom.	23 August 1922	Winding / Shaft Accident	South Lanarkshire	2
Medomsley Colliery cage accident, 1923 On 24 February 1923 the ascending cage in Medomsley Colliery's Busty shaft left its guides about 80 feet below the surface, struck a cast-iron girder, and fell, killing the two onsetters and six shaft lads riding in it. The inquiry blamed cage shoes left in use too long against a guide partly renewed with rail of a different section.	24 February 1923	Winding / Shaft Accident	County Durham	8
Thorne Colliery Shaft Accident, 1926 Six sinkers were killed at Thorne Colliery on 15 March 1926 when the capstan engine holding their six-ton sinking scaffold failed and dropped it, with its ropes, to the bottom of the No. 2 shaft. It was the largest loss of life in a British mine that year, and it came three weeks after sinking proper had been completed.	15 March 1926	Winding / Shaft Accident	South Yorkshire	6
Bilsthorpe Colliery Piping Collapse (1927) A burst water pipe brought roughly 100 tons of shattered ironwork crashing down the sinking shaft, killing fourteen men working below.	1 March 1927	Winding / Shaft Accident	Nottinghamshire	14
1930s
Bickershaw Colliery shaft accident, 1932 An overwound cage carrying 20 men plunged through the bottom of Bickershaw's No.3 shaft into a water-filled sump on 10 October 1932, drowning 19 of them in one of British mining's worst shaft accidents.	10 October 1932	Winding / Shaft Accident	Greater Manchester	19
1940s
Blidworth Colliery Cage Collision (1943) Three men cleaning water garlands from a scaffold mounted on a descending cage were killed when the shaft's two cages collided for an unexplained reason.	Sunday night, 6 June 1943	Winding / Shaft Accident	Nottinghamshire	3
1950s
Point of Ayr Colliery shaft-sinking accident, 1952 Six men employed by a civil engineering contractor were killed on the night shift of 4 July 1952 while sinking a new shaft at Point of Ayr Colliery under compressed air, when the air lock at the shaft top failed about 96 feet down and the workings flooded.	4 July 1952	Winding / Shaft Accident	Flintshire	6
Brookhouse Colliery Overwind, 1958 An overwind in the No. 1 downcast shaft at Brookhouse Colliery injured 36 of the 44 men in a descending cage, after excessive winding speed went unchecked by faulty braking and an improperly equipped automatic safety device.	4 March 1958	Winding / Shaft Accident	South Yorkshire	0
1970s
Markham Colliery shaft accident, 1973 A descending cage carrying miners at Markham Colliery's No.3 shaft failed to slow before reaching the pit bottom on 30 July 1973, after a fatigue-cracked brake rod fractured; 18 men were killed and 11 seriously injured.	30 July 1973	Winding / Shaft Accident	Derbyshire	18