MineArchiveThe Neptune Colliery Inrush (The Stars Look Down)
Fictional record. This page describes an incident from a fictional setting, not a real event. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.
| Date | A snowy Monday morning in the winter before July 1914; the novel gives no calendar date |
|---|---|
| Mine | Neptune Colliery |
| Primary type | Flooding / Inundation |
| Associated types | Entrapment, Gas / Asphyxiation |
| Fatalities | Not totalled in the text: 105 went down; 'not more than fifteen minutes had elapsed from the instant of inrush and already eighty-nine were dead from drowning, violence or black damp suffocation'; divers found seventy-two bodies; the nine entombed with Robert Fenwick all died; ten bodies were still unrecovered when the inquiry closed. Wikipedia's 'over 100' is a fair reading. |
| Injuries | Not stated. |
| Context | During active mining |
The inrush that floods the Paradise and Globe Coal seams of the Neptune Colliery in The Stars Look Down when water from the abandoned Old Neptune workings holes through Scupper No. 6 Branch, killing most of a shift of 105 men and boys within fifteen minutes and entombing nine more, who die in the old waste before the rescuers blasting in from the Old Scupperhole shaft can reach them.
Cause
Water from the flooded low levels of the Old Neptune waste, abandoned eighty years before, broke through the thinned barrier of the Universal Dyke into Scupper No. 6 Branch after Barras had the coal stripped off the Dyke to fill a coking-coal contract; the pumps could not cope, the water rose roof-high in the Scupper ropeway, swept up the Atlas Drift into Globe Coal and sealed both main shafts.
Contributing factors
No plans of the pre-1872 Old Neptune workings; the hogger-pump refused three months before; the deputy's early-morning examination finding nothing; the men's own dislike of the Flats overridden by the need to work.
What happened
At half-past three on the Monday Dinning, the deputy, examined the district and admitted the shift of eighty-seven men and eighteen boys. Bob Ogle, Tally Brown and Tom Reedy, working the heading of two men who had slept in, brought down a jud of coal and water followed it, smelling of styfe. Dinning wrote two notes, one for the under-viewer Hudspeth and one for Frank Logan the fireman, and sent his son Geordie with them; then came the bang. The water came roof-high with the bodies of Ogle, Brown and ten others in it, and took Dinning too: fourteen drowned in the Scupper ropeway. Logan sent thirteen men outbye and went back for the eighteen in the Scupper workings, who were already drowned; the thirteen ran along the Globe main road and 'the water ran faster still'. At pit-bottom the water drowned the men who had reached it and the four ponies in their stalls, and rose in both shafts. Robert Fenwick, far inbye at the head of the slant, telephoned the surface from Scupper Flats; Barras, who knew the old workings, directed him through the frame dam above the dyke into the upper level of the Old Neptune waste, due east fifteen hundred yards to the Old Scupperhole shaft. Nine men, Robert and his son Hughie, Slogger Leeming, Pat Reedy, Jesus Wept, Swee Messer, Ned Softley, Harry Brace, Bennett and Seth Calder, got through the waste and were stopped a quarter of a mile from the shaft by a fall of whinstone roof. They jowled on the rock, held services, and died one by one in the dark, Robert last, leaving a note for David.
Real-world mining concepts used here: Abandonment Plan, Chokedamp, Inrush
Rescue & recovery
Barras telephoned Tynecastle for headgear, steam winding gear and pumps, and Amalgamated Collieries for rescue men, and had the Old Scupperhole shaft in the Snook, choked with stowing and black damp, cleared and fitted with headgear, a winding engine and a fan in twenty-four hours. Divers went along the Globe and Paradise levels and found seventy-two drowned. The rescuers blasted through the old roadway for six days beyond the ten-day mark and broke through to the main road, only to meet 'a complete fall of whinstone roof' sixty paces on; the entombed party were dead. New pumps were fitted to both shafts of No. 17 and the levels were dewatered over the following month or more.
Investigation & inquiry
A formal Inquiry under Section 83 of the Coal Mines Act, sitting six days from 27 July 1914 in Sleescale Town Hall: fifty-four witnesses, fifteen thousand questions, Lynton Roscoe for the owner, Harry Nugent MP for the men. Barras's evidence and his conduct in the rescue won him applause; the Commissioner closed by congratulating him.
Aftermath
Nugent used the inquiry to press the Mines Department on abandoned waterlogged mines, 'the main issue'; David Fenwick, who expected justice, found Barras complimented and let go. Robert's note, 'Barras must have had plans of this waste his instructions were correct', is the novel's verdict.
Consequences
Within the novel, Arthur Barras's post-war pit-head baths, new pumps and safety-first management; David later serves as chief miners' representative on a board reviewing water dangers in mines.
Memorials & commemoration
In the houses of the entombed the breakfast things were laid for their return and the blinds left undrawn, 'the tradition'.
Canon & adaptations
The 1940 film compresses the strike, the contract and the disaster into a continuous sequence and ends on the disaster; the novel's inquiry and aftermath are not in it.
Related fictional records
Recorded claims
Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.
- The shift admitted by the deputy Dinning at half-past three on the Monday morning was 105 persons, eighty-seven men and eighteen boys. (explicit canon) 1
- The water came roof-high down the Scupper ropeway with the bodies of Ogle, Brown and ten other men, and Dinning's made fourteen drowned there. (explicit canon) 1
- Within fifteen minutes eighty-nine were dead from drowning, violence or black damp; divers later found seventy-two bodies, and ten were still unrecovered at the inquiry. (explicit canon) 1
- Nine men led by Robert Fenwick reached the Old Neptune waste on Barras's telephoned directions and died behind a whinstone fall a quarter of a mile from the Old Scupperhole shaft. (explicit canon) 1
- Barras had the Old Scupperhole shaft cleared and fitted with headgear, winding engine and fan within a day; the rescuers blasted through to the old main road and were stopped by the fall sixty paces on. (explicit canon) 1
Sources
- (primary canon) The Stars Look Down (Victor Gollancz, 1935), full text — A. J. Cronin; Internet Archive (Digital Library of India scan, OCR text)
- (interpretation) The Stars Look Down — Wikipedia
Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026