Combs Colliery

Overview

Edward Ingham's pit at Thornhill near Dewsbury, sunk by his father Joshua and said to have been set out on the very best principles regardless of cost. On 4 July 1893, a few minutes after noon, an explosion in the Wheatley seam killed 139 men and boys, forty-six of them under sixteen. It was one of the worst disasters in the Yorkshire coalfield.

History

Combs was one of several pits around Thornhill owned by Edward Theodore Ingham of Blake Hall, Mirfield, a member of the local gentry whose family also held Hostingley, closed in 1880, and Ings, closed in 1883, and who later sank Ingham No. 1 and No. 2. The pit had been first sunk by his father Joshua Ingham and was said to have been set out on the very best principles, regardless of cost.

The drawing pit, a downcast shaft, was driven through the New Hards seam and the Wheatley to the Blocking Bed: about 115 yards from the surface to the New Hards, 265 yards more to the Wheatley, and 25 yards below that to the Blocking Bed. A second shaft, the Water Pit, was driven from the surface to the New Hards, with a staple pit a short distance from its bottom carrying on through the Wheatley to the Blocking Bed. Ventilation came from a Guibal fan thirty feet across at the top of the Ingham Pit, running at forty-eight revolutions a minute at a water gauge of 1.7 inches. The ventilation ran through tunnels that communicated with the adjoining Ings Colliery, by then worked out.

Only the Wheatley seam had been worked for some years before 1893, on a single shift going down at six in the morning and coming up at two. Combs had always been thought a safe pit and Ingham a responsible owner, popular with his men. A new manager, William Scott, thirty-five and twenty years a miner, took over on 4 May 1893 from Jesse Taylor; he was invited to inspect the pit and to arrange any work he judged necessary himself. Two months later 139 men and boys were dead (see Disasters, below).

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of the West Yorkshire coalfield south of the River Calder at Thornhill, taking the New Hards, the Wheatley and the Blocking Bed. Only the Wheatley was being worked in the years before 1893. A fault in the Wheatley workings, from which gas came, was central to the inquiry into the explosion: the new manager did not know it was there.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Two shafts. The drawing pit, the downcast, went through the New Hards and the Wheatley to the Blocking Bed; the Water Pit went to the New Hards, with a staple pit from near its bottom continuing through the Wheatley to the Blocking Bed. A thirty-foot Guibal fan at the Ingham Pit ventilated the workings, whose air also communicated with the disused Ings Colliery next door. The men worked one shift a day, six until two. Safety lamps were used at the face, but five or six paraffin lamps burned in porches leading to the Wheatley workings each shift and naked lamps stood at lamp stations in the pit.

Closure

No closure date is recorded. The colliery is not recorded as having closed in consequence of the 1893 explosion.

What remains

Nothing is recorded of the site. A memorial wheel and an information plaque carrying names from mining incidents between 1870 and 1972 stand in Rectory Park at Thornhill, put there by the Thornhill Community Mining Memorial Group.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Hostingley Colliery — Both were Edward Theodore Ingham's pits around Thornhill; Hostingley closed in 1880 and Combs went on to be the best known of the group.
• Ingham Colliery — Neighbouring Ingham family pits connected underground and by tramway, sharing ventilation; combined as Thornhill Colliery in 1948.

Disasters & major incidents

• Combs Colliery Explosion, 1893
  4 July 1893 · Explosion · 139 fatalities
  A few minutes after noon on 4 July 1893, during the men's dinner hour, an explosion of firedamp ignited by a naked light tore through the Wheatley seam at Combs Pit, Thornhill. Of the 146 people underground, 139 died — forty-six of them under sixteen, and seven of those aged twelve. Most died not of the blast but of the afterdamp.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Combs' (catalogue 2047, Old Hards, dated 1887); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• The drawing pit, a downcast shaft, was driven through the New Hards and Wheatley seams to the Blocking Bed — about 115 yards to the New Hards, 265 more to the Wheatley and 25 below that — with a second shaft, the Water Pit, to the New Hards and a staple pit from near its bottom through the Wheatley to the Blocking Bed. ¹
• Ventilation was produced by a Guibal fan thirty feet in diameter at the top of the Ingham Pit, running at 48 revolutions a minute at a water gauge of 1.70 inches. ¹
• The pit formed part of the Thornhill colliery and was the property of the Inghams of Blake Hall near Mirfield; the Durham Mining Museum gives the company at the time of the explosion as Mr Edward Ingham. ^2,1
• Combs had always been considered a safe pit, and Edward Ingham was seen as a responsible owner and was popular with the workforce. ³
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Combs' (catalogue 2047, Old Hards, dated 1887); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Thornhill Disaster, Dewsbury, Yorkshire, 4th July 1893 — Healey Hero
2. (primary) Colliery Disaster: Thornhill, Combs Pit, 4th July 1893 — Durham Mining Museum, from the mines inspectors' records
3. (secondary) The Combs Colliery Disaster, 4th July 1893 — Kirklees Cousins
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: COMBS — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026