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	Individual Details		Individual Details

Age:	15
Died:	22nd Jul 1850
Accident:	22nd Jul 1850
Year Born:	abt. 1835
Colliery:	Low Grange
Company:	Grange Coal Co.
Occupation:
Notes:	boiler explosion
Buried:	[not known]
Category:

Low Grange Colliery, which was owned by the Grange Coal Company, was the scene of a terrible boiler explosion on 22 July. Fireman James Miller and a boy called Stubbs were injured, and two other boys, Joshua Pryor, 15, and George Armour, 11, were killed. Considerable damage was done to the surrounding colliery buildings and the furnace chimney was left in such a precarious state that it had to be dismantled and rebuilt. One woman had a lucky escape when some of the stones entered her wooden house nearby; she was not seriously injured.

At the inquest, banksman Simon Turnbull of Carville said that the engine was drawing coals and pumping water when the boiler exploded. "I thought at first the pit had blasted. I found the bricks lying around me, and made round past the shaft by the screens... I saw one of the boilers had burst... We looked to see if anyone was hurt, and saw the fireman close to the shaft, who was making out of the way. He was injured about the face and head by the stones and water. We looked further and found Armour lying against the coal heap, lapped over with stones, except his feet. That was about ten or twelve yards from the boiler... He appeared to have been killed by the stones... Pryor and Armour were filling tubs with ballast at the place where their bodies were found."

Thomas Crone, a mason, also from Carville, said, "I saw the bodies after the explosion... We found the dead body of Pryor covered up, exept his feet, by stones and rubbish... He appeared to have been severely injured in his face, head and body."

Fireman James Miller said, "I was making up the fire at the time of the explosion. It was very sudden. I had just thrown in one shovelfull of coals, and had turned round to get another, when there was a great noise and I was driven out of the hole. I received a blow which rendered me insensible.

Thomas Murray, an engineer and boiler builder from Chester-le-Street, had examined the remains of the boiler. "I found it in two pieces, one in the field and another adjoining the boiler seat... I examined the boiler itself. The cause of the explosion was a shortness of water. The plates immediately beneath the saddle had been red hot." He also commented that if the boiler had been red hot and the water feed had then been let in, it would increase the tendency for the boiler to explode.

In summing up the evidence, the Coroner said that but for Murray’s evidence, the true reason for the explosion would never have been known, as the previous witnesses could give no explanation. The jury brought in a verdict of accidental death on the two boys, and said that the explosion was caused "by a deficiency of water in the boiler."

• Contributions by members of the Public
• Text kindly provided by Jim Grainger from his research into early newspapers (primarily the Durham Advertiser and Durham Chronicle).

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