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	Individual Details		Individual Details

Age:
Died:	10th Jul 1857
Accident:	10th Jul 1857
Born:
Colliery:	Merrington
Company:
Occupation:	Fireman
Notes:	boiler exploded
Buried:	Ferryhill
Category:

Just after 2p.m. on Friday, 10 July, a tremendous explosion was heard coming from the shaft of Spennymoor Colliery; it caused ‘the most intense alarm, not only to the workmen in the pit but to the people in the village.’ Mr. Cook, the viewer at Whitworth Colliery, descended the pit shortly after the blast, and together with some other pitmen discovered a scene of utter devastation about 40 yards from the shaft bottom. The brakesman, George Burnett, was found lying dead on one side of the engine drum, almost 20 yards from the bed of the boiler; close by was fireman James MacMillan ‘dreadfully scalded and bruised, but still alive.’ Near the drum were the bodies of Thomas Gills and his son John — both were covered with bricks and debris. It appeared that they had gone into the engine house to eat their dinners : Gills snr. ‘still held his dinner can in his lifeless grasp.’ Three boys, Croudace, Hetherington and Cooke, were all badly scalded, and onsetter William Kirby had suffered an arm injury. A horse, which the lads were driving was found with the skin stripped from its left side by the scalding steam. Kirby found something worse ‘the complete skin of a human hand, with the nails attached.’ After the dead and injured were taken to bank, Cook made a cursory examination of the boiler, which he noticed had burst about six feet from the fire end. The boiler provided steam for a stationary engine which was used to draw tubs of coal along the underground workings to the shaft bottom.

An inquest into the deaths of the men was opened on Saturday, 11 July in the Wheat Sheaf Inn, Spennymoor; and it soon became apparent that there had been problems with the boiler for several days before the explosion. The breaksman, George Burnett, had attempted to stop a water leak by adding a mixture of meal and horse dung to the boiler — a common practice. Then, he had called for the colliery engineer, Robert Golightly, to examine it. Golightly testified that the boiler ‘was leaking from two or three rivets.’ He had told Burnett to notify him if it got worse and then he would ‘lay her off’; if not, he ‘would get her put right at the week end.’ That decision was to cost four men their lives. The evidence of John Hedley, the engineer at South Hetton Colliery, was damning. He said of Golightly ‘I think he showed a want of judgement in not discovering the mischief that was going on.’ And, of Burnett, he remarked that he ‘was to blame on the Friday in not having sent for Golightly, or dampened the fire, or stopped the engine.’ He continued ‘In all probability, if this had been done, the bursting would have been prevented.’

The jury agreed with Hedley, and were of the opinion that the accident was ‘solely from want of judgement as to the real state of the boiler on the part of Robert Golightly.’ However, the Coroner pointed out that this was in effect a verdict of manslaughter. The jury backed down, returned a verdict of accidental death, and added that, although Golightly’s judgement was defective, they ‘did not think it amounted to a criminal offence.’

Mines Inspector John Atkinson wrote In his annual report:

In this case, I consider that the enginewright should, at least, have made a more careful examination of the defects which caused the boiler to leak, on the evening of the day preceding that on which the accident occurred, after the working of the engine had ceased, than it was possible for him to have made when he was sent for during the working hours; had he done so, it might have led to the timely detection of the dangerous nature of the defects, and thus to the prevention of the catastrophe itself.

On the following day, when the engineman found the leak becoming much worse, he ought to have dampened the fire under the boiler, and sent for the enginewright, in accordance with his instructions; the reason of his not doing so was probably caused by his wish to keep the pit working, a matter of small importance compared with the chance of saving the lives of the fireman and himself, and those of a waggon-way man and his son ( both of whom happened to be needlessly near the engine and boiler at the time), together with a considerable loss to his employers.

Pub. Date	Article (Newspaper)
18 Jul 1857	Boiler Explosion And Loss Of Three Lives (Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury)
25 Jul 1857	The Boiler Explosion At Spennymoor (Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury)

• 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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