Old Bradley Colliery

Overview

A Bilston colliery of G. B. Thorneycroft and Company where, on 30 May 1862, water lying in flooded Thick Coal workings burst into a draining level driven just beneath them and swept seven men and boys into the shaft.

History

Old Bradley Colliery, at Bilston in the South Staffordshire coalfield, belonged to G. B. Thorneycroft and Company. Its Thick Coal, the Ten Yard seam, had been worked through No. 23 shaft until a few months before May 1862, when water stopped the work and the pumps could not clear it. To drain it, a level was driven from No. 7 shaft in the Gubbin Ironstone measure, below the Thick Coal; by the end of May it ran 103 yards, rising at about 1 in 19 to within three or four feet of the bottom of the coal.

On 30 May 1862 the water lying in the Thick Coal gate-roads just above broke through the roof of the level, swept away the scaffold at its mouth and carried those in it into the shaft, driving gas before it. Seven died, among them the deputy, Thomas Dunning, and his twelve-year-old son Isaac. Two large pumping engines were set to work; the inspector, Mr Baker, arrived that evening, and the shaft walling, almost destroyed by the water, had to be rebuilt by relays of men through a night of heavy rain before the last bodies were recovered on the Sunday. Captain Thornycroft stayed at the pit head throughout and went down with the inspector.

Geology

South Staffordshire coalfield: the Thick Coal (Ten Yard seam), with the Gubbin Ironstone measure beneath it.

Workings

Numbered shafts, No. 23 working the Thick Coal and No. 7, from which a draining level was driven up in the Gubbin Ironstone; pumping engines of 16-inch and 10-inch cylinders.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Old Bradley Colliery belonged to G. B. Thorneycroft and Company in 1862. ^1,2
• A draining level was driven from No. 7 shaft in the Gubbin Ironstone to within a few feet of the flooded Thick Coal. ¹
• On 30 May 1862 water broke into the level from the Thick Coal workings and seven died. ^1,2
• The dead included the deputy, Thomas Dunning, and his twelve-year-old son. ²

Sources

1. (secondary) Old Bradley Colliery Inrush, Bilston, 1862 (NMRS accidents and disasters) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Colliery disaster, 30 May 1862: Old Bradley (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 24 October 2026 · Last researched: 24 October 2026