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Extracted from the "Report from the Select Committee on Accidents In Mines", Ordered by the House of Commons, to be Printed, 4 September 1835.

Informations of Witnesses severally taken and acknowledged, on behalf of our Sovereign Lord the King, touching the Death of William Craster, at the Wallsend Colliery Office, and from thence adjourned to the School House at Wallsend, in the Parish of Wallsend, in the County of Northumberland, on the 22nd day of June, in the Year of our Lord 1835, before Stephen Reed, Esquire, one of the Coroners for the said County, on an Inquisition there and then taken on view of the body of the said deceased, lying dead in the said Parish; (the said several Witnesses having been first duly sworn) as follow; to wit, —

John Buddle, of Wallsend, in the county of Northumberland, esquire, being sworn, proceeded to give the following account of the colliery, and illustrated his description by references to a large plan of the workings, without which it is impossible to convey any exact idea of their nature and extent. He stated that, between 20 and 30 years ago, he devised a plan of ventilating coal mines by what he called double air-courses, which consisted simply in driving a current of air down one shaft and up another by rarefaction. It required just 14 times the quantity of atmospheric air to be diluted with one of foul air, to enable the latter to bear a naked flame without exploding. The Bensham seam of the Wallsend pit emitted a great quantity of foul air, and of course required the intromission of good air to 14 times the extent. To effect this, the best system of ventilation was required and had been adopted. The means taken were to produce rarefaction by furnaces when the air was not sufficiently inflammable to fire at naked flame, and thus carry the adulterated air up one air-shaft by driving a current of atmospheric air down another. Where the emission of gas is so great that the introduction of a flame would cause instant explosion, as is the case with old workings, currents of air are carried along the face of these workings by means of what is called the gas drift, or dumb furnace; and these currents bear the gas along with them as it oozes out from the front of the coal. Thus the air which is safely accessible to naked lights, goes to the furnace and by rarefaction is carried out of the mine, whilst that which would fire on the introduction of a flame is carried off by a distinct drift without coming in the way of flame at all.

The colliery comprises four shafts, one of them double, and extends over an area of 105 acres. Thus five pits cover 105 acres, which is only about 20 acres to a pit; and these are ventilated by three downcast and three upcast shafts. Whenever a place is doubtful the naked light is not permitted to be taken there. There are four divisions of the collery now working, in two of which, those called the pillar divisions, Davy-lamps are used ; and in the other two, called the whole (or unwrought) coal divisions, the work is carried on with candles. In the latter, the air is so good that candles may be safely used; and when Davy-lamps are used no explosion can take place in the former, but by some sad neglect, or accident, or inadvertance. Should the lamps become heated, this operates as a caution to the men, and they are directed to retire from such places as early as possible. Their art only extended to the taking off the gas by means of drifts or air courses; and all they could do was to make the mine safe in one place for naked lights, and in the other for Davy-lamps. No communication can take place between the workmen who use candles and those who work with Davy-lamps. They are divided by stoppings, or walls of brick or stone, and are about 100 yards apart. By this method of dividing the works, it is hoped that, should an accident occur in one division, its consequences may not extend to any of the others; for this can only be done by blowing away the stoppings. There is an immense gasometer which feeds a flame by means of a pipe at the C or village pit, at the rate of 11 hogsheads per minute; and if the fire had reached to that magazine the effect would have been like that of an earthquake. The village might have been destroyed by the explosion. He (Mr. Buddle) knew no more than a child where or how the accident originated. Up to that morning he had supposed it to have taken place in the east pillar division; but when they had got through the obstruction caused by the blowing away of the brattices they found this could not have been the case. The bodies found there had died from suffocation by the after-damp, and had the shaft not been choked up, and the air stopped thereby, it is probable that not over 20 or 30 lives would have been lost. So deliberately had the workmen left this part of the mine, that each boy had his Davy-lamp, and one man, who seemed to have driven the lads before him, had brought away five. This conjecture as to the origin of the fire proving unfounded, he could not conceive where it had commenced. The locks of the gas-drift doors had sometimes been taken off; and God only knew whether something of the kind had taken place on this occasion, and thereby led to the explosion. They could say, almost with certainty, that it had not not occurred in any of the divisions where the men were working.

Mr. Buddle, in continuation, proceeded: I have been employed 43 years at Wallsend colliery. The colliery had been wrought about 11 years before I knew it. Since I knew the colliery the main coal has been wholly worked, its thickness is from six to seven feet. The next seam that was proved and partially worked is the metal coal seam, three feet in thickness. The succeeding seam is the Bensham seam, now in the course of working, it is five feet six inches in height, and was first opened in 1820. This seam at the pit where the explosion took place is between 140 and 150 fathoms from the surface. Though it is not a general principle, yet, with respect to Wallsend colliery I have found that the deeper the seam is from the surface the greater quantity of hydrogen gas is generated. The present workings of the Bensham seam extend to about 100 acres. The coals are drawn from one pit only, the G pit, which is a double pit, that is, the coals are drawn up on each side of the brattice which divides the shaft. There are five ventilating shafts, three of which convey the atmospheric air into the seam, and the other two carry it off; the former being the downcasts and the latter the upcasts. The Bensham seam has always been known and considered as a dangerous seam, and requires the utmost care to keep it in a workable state, for which the most approved system has been adopted and pursued. I consider that the shafts for ventilation are amply sufficient for the purpose, as they have been found to be up to the present time. And, from the experience I have had, I believe that this accident has not arisen from any defect in ventilation. The Bensham seam, as I have before stated, is about five feet six inches in height. There is a band runs through this seam of coal which they are now working ; it extends in the shape of a wedge, and is at one place about 16 inches thick. Eastward it nearly disappears altogether. The band lies about two feet 10 inches from the roof. The men work in different districts for the purpose of dividing the risk, so that if an explosion takes place in one district it might not extend to another. The men that were working in the G pit were in four divisions, one party was working full 500 yards from the shaft of the G pit where an explosion took place. This place was the most dangerous part of the pit. This particular part was at the extremity of the east boundary, and as the coal was wrought and taken away the roof naturally fell in from pressure, there being no pillars left to support it. These places are called the goaf, or void, consequently a great quantity of foul air or hydrogen is generated there. A separate current of air is directed past the face, or in front of this goaf, to carry off the gas that is emitted from it into the gas drift, by which it is carried into the upcast pit, which is 2,000 yards from the place where the gas is generated, as above described, and without being allowed to come in contact with the furnace which is used for rarefaction. Another party of men was working upwards of 1,000 yards from the shaft of the G pit; both these parties were working in the pillar. Another party was working in the whole mine, where the coal had not been wrought before, about the same distance from the G shaft as the last. And the fourth party was working about 900 yards from the G shaft, in the whole mine also. In all these workings there exist inflammable air, more or less; which, as regards the pillar working, is carried off by separate currents of air into the gas pipe or dumb drift, whilst the inflammable air from the whole workings is carried off by its appropriate currents to the furnaces in upcast shafts. The men who were working in the pillar divisions were working with Davy-lamps. Those who were working at the whole coal were working with candles; but even here, whenever any danger is apprehended, the candles are withdrawn and the Davy-lamps substituted. One of the division of pillars was near to or in the vicinity of the division that was working the whole coal. The two places were upwards of 100 yards apart, and were effectually separated by a course of substantial stoppings by which the air courses already described are kept separate and independent of each other. If any of those stoppings are injured no serious danger can occur, as the current of fresh air would preponderate and pass off with the adulterated current.

The last time I was down the colliery, previous to the accident, was about three weeks ago. I then found everything correct, and the system of ventilation in perfect order in all its details.

The daily details of the ventilation is committed to Mr. John Atkinson, viewer, with his overman, deputy overman, wastemen, and others, who are daily down the pit, and on all other occasions when there is considered a necessity for it. I was down the pit after the accident happened on Friday morning. The object was chiefly to devise some plan to recover the bodies of the workmen. The first body I came to was that of a deputy overman, which was as far as I could at that time go with safety. This man appeared to have been making endeavours to escape, being found near to the place he was employed at. He seemed noways burnt, but must have died of suffocation by the after-damp. As far as I have been able to explore, there are no indications to show where the explosion first took place; but, as yet, there is no reason to suppose it took place in any of the working divisions. The reason that candles are used in working the whole coal is, that it is necessary to blast the coal with gunpowder, which is rather a means of safety than otherwise, because it at all times proves the efficiency of the ventilation; if it was not so, gunpowder could not be used.

Examination of John Buddle continued after an adjournment, 23rd June 1835.

I have already observed the Bensham seam of Wallsend colliery abounds with inflammable air; in order that an idea may be formed of the quantity discharged, I take, for example, the quantity which is now in a state of combustion at the top of the gas pipe of the C pit. This stream of gas issues from a detached portion of the workings of about five acres in area. The quantity as gauged issuing from that pipe is 11 hogsheads per minute, and is constantly burning. Supposing that the gas which is conveyed from the workings by this pipe was suffered to discharge itself through the workings, it would take at least from 150 to 160 hogsheads per minute of atmospheric air to dilute it below the firing point, so as to allow of its being carried through the fire of a furnace. I am of opinion that those three downcast shafts are sufficiently ample to convey a sufficient quantity of atmospheric air to render the workings safe. But the working in the broken or pillars is always dangerous, and cannot be worked without the aid of the Davy-lamp. About 700 yards from the broken at the east side of the mine, and about 250 from the G pit to the west of it, a portion of the mine has been wrought and other parts crept or fallen in ; in these places a considerable quantity of foul air exists, and to prevent the workmen having access to these old workings they are built up with strong stoppings, except two doors for the wastemen to enter, whose duty it is to travel the gas pipe, or dumb drift, for the purpose of keeping it free and open at all times : which doors are kept constantly locked, but when the wastemen have occasion to go through them ; on those occasions the wastemen have Davy-lamps.

In 1821, when the Bensham seam was first opened, the dangerous nature of the seam was soon discovered by the fatal accident which took place on the 21st day of October in that year, and showed the necessity of adopting the most efficient mode of ventilation that could be devised. At that time only one pit was sunk to this seam, the workings were therefore suspended until other pits were sunk, and until progressively five in all were put down to this seam, as already stated, and the system of ventilation was brought to its present improved state.

John Buddle.