Description

See also: Reminiscences of a Survivor of the 1862 disaster in the Archives section

One of the most appalling and heartrending catastrophes that has ever occurred in any country took place this morning in Hartley New Pit, near Seaton Delaval. Over the mouth of the pit was the beam of a pumping engine, the largest and most powerful in the North of England, the beam weighing about forty tons. The men were being drawn up in the cage by means of the winding machine when the beam of the engine broke and fell into the pit, meeting, in its downward course, the ascending cage with its human cargo, the enormous mass crushing everything in its way. Five were killed instantly, and three were afterwards extricated alive. The beam, it seemed, struck the top of the brattice with such violence that the whole of the massive wooden and iron framework was hurled to the bottom of the mine, thus cutting off all means of escape from the lower portion of the mine, in which were 215 men and boys buried alive. As soon as the nature of the accident became known, the pit mouth was soon crowded with noble fellows, who at once volunteered to enter the mine, and render every assistance in their power to rescue the living and recover the mangled remains of the dead. The viewer, Charles Carr, esq., and his assistant, Mr. Humble, were soon on the spot, along with Hugh Taylor, esq., of Backworth; T. E. Forster, esq., Newcastle; M. Dunn, esq., her majesty's inspector of mines ; Mr. Coulson, the master sinker of North Seaton Colliery; and many other able and scientific men connected with the coal trade. The shattered cage was, after herculean exertions, brought up smashed and torn, as if it had been manufactured of the weakest tin instead of the strongest wrought iron. The rims, about an inch thick, were shivered as if they had been the thinnest of tissue paper. And now commenced, in this district, six days of the most intense anxiety and harrowing suspense. Mr. Coulson and his heroic assistants laboured almost day and night in removing the debris, so as to form a communication with the men in the pit. Imagination in vain attempts to paint the scene which went on below: the agony of suspense they must have endured, the torturing terrors of their dim and stifling gallery, are all beyond conception; and then the pale, sorrowing watchers above, who thought of neither night nor day, nor of cold nor of privations, while waiting in dread anxiety for husbands, brothers, and children engulphed in that dark abyss. At last, on the 22nd, an opening was made into the workings, and one of the brave shift men, named William Adams, accompanied by two companions, entered the mine. They went along till they came to the bodies of two of the entombed men. Pushing their way along, at great danger to themselves, for the air was very bad, they found more bodies strewn in all directions. In all the ghastly company not one spark of precious life remained. On the body of Amour, the back-overman, was found, written in pencil on a torn newspaper, in a straggling handwriting, the following memorandum :-

"Friday afternoon, at half-past two.
"Edward Armstrong, Thomas Gledston, John Hardy, Thomas Bell, and others, took extremely ill. We also had a prayer-meeting at a quarter to two, when Tibbs, Henry Sharp, J. Campbell, Henry Gibson and William Palmer. Tibbs exhorted us again, and Sharp also."

This memorandum, though brief and imperfect, shows, as on many other occasion of a similar nature, that the horrors of a death beyond imagination have been lightened by the only consolation man could have in such an hour, and that whilst the men were passing through the fiery furnace they had with them One greater than they, who alone could solace and console. This appalling catastrophe aroused the benevolent and charitable feelings of the country to an extent never paralleled in spontaneity and magnificence by any purely local calamity. Everywhere, from one end of the country to the other, in rural hamlets as well as crowded cities, a consoling sympathy with the destitute, and a substantial desire to alleviate their sufferings and provide for their necessities, was manifested. The queen also gave freely, and accompanied the gift with the expression of feelings, which, next to the relief of absolute destitution, are the most acceptable balm to the wounded and bleeding heart. The Common Council of the city of London laid aside its rules of action to give 100 guineas. The London Coal Exchange felt a personal interest in the matter, and promptly subscribed 1,000 guineas. The brokers in Mincing-lane and Lloyd's also made large contributions. In this district individual sympathy and well doing was all but universal, and each vied with the other in liberality. Public meetings were held in Newcastle, Tynemouth, Morpeth, Hexham, Blyth, and other places, with a promptitude which showed that the interest felt in the destitute condition of the bereaved population was not cold or conventional but heartfelt and cordial. These public manifestations of sympathy in this district were followed by others in London, Manchester, and other places, and a noble fund, worthy of a Christian nation, was raised for the objects of the general solicitude. On the 26th the last sad phase of this fearful tragedy was completed by the bodies being solemnly interred in the silent grave; and so great was the number of persons and vehicles composing the procession, that although Earsdon Church is four miles from New Hartley, the first rough hearse had arrived at the church before the last had left the colliery. The burial ground attached to the parish church at Earsdon was totally inadequate to the extraordinary requirements made upon it, and provision had consequently to be made outside the church-yard for nearly the whole of the bodies. The ground for the purpose was given by His Grace the Duke of Northumberland. After the bodies had been laid in the graves, there were sorrowing friends anxiously inquiring the exact spot at which were laid those for whom they mourned; and the tender flower and gloomy cypress, planted by the hand and watered with the tear of affection, will bloom there when the memory of those who sleep peacefully beneath shall have passed away from the earth.

Memorial: 1862 New Hartley Colliery Disaster

Memorial

Related Articles

Further Reading

• Great Pit Disasters, 1700 to present day by Helen and Baron Duckham, Published by David & Charles, 1973
• The Hartley Colliery Disaster by John E. McCutcheon
• The Miners of Northumberland and Durham by Richard Fynes, first published in 1873
• Northumberland & Cumberland Mining Disasters by Maureen Anderson, Published by Wharncliffe Books, 2009, ISBN 1-845630-81-5

Sources

• Church/Cemetery photograph (T-00792-01-0002) © Kev Duncan
• Headstone(s) in St. Alban's Churchyard, Earsdon
• Local Records or Historical Register of Remarkable Events by T. Fordyce, published in 1867
• Memorial in St. Alban's Churchyard, Earsdon
• Memorial photograph (T-00779-01-0002) © Kev Duncan

Researchers

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