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	Percy Main Colliery	Index	Percy Main Colliery

Location:	North Shields 5½ miles [9 km] ENE of Newcastle
Map Ref:	(Sheet 88) NZ337670, 54° 59' 50" N, 1° 28' 21" W
Maps:	1807 map from "The Picture of Newcastle Upon Tyne…", published in 1807 by D. Akenhead
	1860s map detailed map from the Ordnance Survey
Opened:
Closed:
Pits:	Flatworth Pit, locn: (Sheet 88) NZ325679
	Shaft details for Flatworth Pit
	Percy Pit
	Shaft details for Percy Pit
Employment:	1843 - 611
	Catalogue of plans of abandoned mines for Percy Main Colliery

Description

Proceeding eastward from Willington, we arrive at Percy Main, or Howden Pans Colliery, which is situated about a mile and half from North Shields. The sinking of the old pit was completed in 1799. A formidable quicksand, which lay at the depth of 30 fathoms from the surface, with a feeder of water of 1,400 or 1,500 gallons per minute, greatly impeded the sinking and increased the expense. The sand was passed, and the water dammed back, by a cast-iron tub — the first that was used in the coal-trade for sinking through quicksands. The depth to the High Main coal is 120 fathoms, and 160 to the Bensham seam, which is the deepest that has yet been worked; but the whole series of the Tyne seams, with the exception of the Three-quarter coal, exist in this pit. The workings extend under the bed of the Tyne. A new winning, 135 fathoms deep, was opened in 1806-7.

In some parts the seams rise at a considerable angle, and the workings on the rise side of the pit soon ascend much above the bottom of the shaft. This circumstance was productive of a singular phenomenon in 1807.

The colliery having been set on fire, it became necessary to drown up the workings to extinguish it, and the shaft was filled with water to the depth of 20 or 30 fathoms. When the engine began to draw the water out again, it worked for several weeks without apparently making any impression, the water sometimes rising and sometimes falling. At length an immense eruption of inflammable air issued suddenly from the mouth of the pit, which continued, for 8 or 10 minutes, to vomit a prodigious quantity of gas, when it as suddenly ceased, and all was tranquil again. In half an hour a similar eruption took place; and for 26 hours these eruptions were repeated at regular intervals of half an hour, when they ceased, and the gas continued to discharge itself in gluts, and beating like a "water hammer," with a loud noise, through the column of water, which had fallen suddenly to the depth of a fathom or two in the bottom of the shaft. The cause of this curious phenomenon was the inflammable air being confined in the rise workings, and compressed, by the column of water in the shaft, to a degree equal to the weight of that column. When the water was sufficiently lightened by the working of the engine, the compressed air overcame the resistance, and rushed out of the mouth of the pit like the discharge of an immense air-gun. A similar phenomenon, from a similar cause, has recently been exhibited from the Bensham seam; the only difference being that instead of the gas discharging itself by distinct eruptions, at certain intervals, it was blown off, after the first eruption, in a continuous stream, like an enormous gas-pipe, which lasted three days.

Views of the Collieries (1844)

Disasters (5 or more killed)

None Found

Names of those killed at this colliery

Please note that this collection of names is by no means complete!

						Allen, -, 02 Feb 1838, Rolley Driver, killed by the rollies running over him (NEIMME Ref: Bud-48-8-29)
						Allen, John, 13 Sep 1817, Rolly Driver, killed in the Howdon Pit, by the Rollies running over him — it was supposed that he had been riding on the fore-end of the rollies, and that he had fallen off — no person saw him fall (NEIMME Ref: Bud-30-p70)
						Clement, -, 25 Aug 1817, Rolly Driver, killed in the West Pit, Howdon, by the rollies running over him. He was riding on the fore end of the rollies, and in going down a steep part of the way had fallen off — he was killed on the spot (NEIMME Ref: Bud-30-p67)
						Clennet, John, 02 Aug 1824, aged 55, fell down the shaft ; left a widow, Isabella, and three daughters, Buried: Christchurch, Tynemouth
						Corner, John, 31 Aug 1841, aged 15, Putter, he was killed by the empty waggons running over him, he was attempting to jump upon the 1st waggon of the set, when he slipped and fell upon the rail, 5 waggons ran over his body and killed him on the spot (NEIMME Ref: Bud-48-13-173)
						Daglish, James, 06 Sep 1849, aged 23, Miner, shaft accident [More information ...]
						Dobinson, Thomas, 17 Sep 1847, fell down shaft [More information ...]
						Murray, Walter, 17 Sep 1847, fell down shaft [More information ...]
						Pattinson, Thomas, 06 Sep 1849, aged 29, Miner, shaft accident [More information ...]
						Phillips, Robert, 16 Sep 1850, aged 57, killed by a fall of stone
						Scott, Margaret, 20 Mar 1855, aged 7, [Not Employed], killed on the pit heap
						Short, Stephen, 29 Jul 1835, Miner, killed by a fall of stone from the roof
						Thornton, Robert, 01 Sep 1838, aged 67, Back Overman, suffocation in water in the Bensham Seam
						Urwin, George, 26 Mar 1816, Hewer, killed, in Olivers way Howdon Pit, by the falling of a goaf. They were just finishing the jud when the goaf began to work suddenly and before the men could get out of the goaf, fell and killed Urwin on the spot Forster was covered all over but his head and was left for some time in a most critical situation as no one durst venture in to his assistance until the working of the goaf subsided (NEIMME Ref: Bud-30-p40)
						Wallace, John, 08 Jun 1859, killed bycoal waggons
						Wood, John, 01 May 1841, Shifter, he was killed by the fall of a side wafer (NEIMME Ref: Bud-48-13-107)
						Young, -, 10 May 1843, Hewer, killed by the fall of his top (NEIMME Ref: Bud-48-15-160)
						17 names found

If you know of any fatalities missing from the above list then please contact us with the details and we will add them to our database.

Those names marked with , have a web page providing individual details of the accident, the page may also include a photograph of the deceased. Click on the symbol next to the name to see the web page.

Some of the names of mining fatalities on this web page have been kindly provided by the researchers at North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (N.E.I.M.M.E.) and are marked with .

  more information on some of the fatalities shown above

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Date							Inspectors Remarks
02 May 1851	–	–	–	–	1	1	Killed by gin

Collieries and Pits within 5 miles (8km)

  a simulated map showing the immediate vicinity of Percy Main Colliery

  list of collieries/pits etc. near to Percy Main Colliery

Gallery Images:

Credits

Sources:

Pictures:

Related Links:

	On this site
	Newspaper articles
	Views of the Collieries in the Counties of Northumberland and Durham by T. H. Hair (1844) — Percy Main Colliery
	Evidence given to the 1842 Children's Employment Commission
	Pictures in the Gallery section for Percy Main Colliery

Further Research:

  Research Notes for Percy Main Colliery