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Description of the Colliery. — The St. Helens Collieries are situated to the North of the town of Workington in Cumberland and are close to the sea shore.

The present owners are the St. Helens Colliery & Brickworks Co., Ltd., who acquired the Collieries in 1921 during the national stoppage in that year.

There were originally two mines, viz., No, 2 Pit and No. 3 Pit, but owing to the stoppage in 1921 the lower seams at No, 2 Pit became flooded and were not re-opened, while the upper seams were abandoned.

Both of the shafts at No. 3 Pit are used as winding shafts. The Downcast is sunk to the Six Feet Seam and its depth is 220½ fathoms; the Upcast is sunk to the Lower Three Quarters Seam and is 203 fathoms in depth.

The following seams were cut in the Downcast shaft at the depths specified :—

Seam.	Depth.
	Faths.	Ft.	Ins.
White Metal	66	1	6
Upper Yard	67	4	10
Slatey Band	74	0	1
Ten Quarters	85	1	6
Metal Band	115	4	10
Cannel Band	117	2	1
Yard Band	139	3	0
Little Main	150	2	5
Lickbank	169	5	2
Upper Three Quarters	198	1	4
Lower Three Quarters	203	4	3
Six Feet	220	3	3

The Downcast shaft is 10 ft. 9 ins, in diameter, the winding level being at the Lickbank Seam, while the Upcast shaft is 11 ft. 8 ins, in diameter, and winding is carried out from the Cannel and Lower Three Quarters Seams.

Management. — The mine is under the control of an Agent, Mr. T. Banks, and a Manager, Mr. C. D. James. There are two Under-Managers, Mr. J. Spence being the Under-Manager for the area in which the explosion occurred. There were nine overmen, one in each shift for each section of the mine.

Deputies. — There were 38 deputies, one in each shift for each district. The Ten Quarters Seam, with which this report is principally concerned, was divided into two districts, with a deputy in charge of each, and their duties did not overlap in any way. In addition to their statutory duties, the deputies also did the shot-firing.

Organisation of Shifts and Persons Employed. — Prior to the stoppage, both mines were worked practically as single shift pits, but when No, 2 Pit was stopped nearly the whole of the men were transferred to No. 3 Pit, the greater part of which was then put on a double shift basis. The working of the Little Main, Three Quarters and Six Feet Seams was continued with only one shift of hewers, but in the remainder of the mine two shifts of hewers and one repairing shift were employed.

The times of descent and ascent, except for persons working in the Little Main, Three Quarters and Six Feet Seams, were as follows :—

Shift		Descend.	Ascend.
1.	Deputies.	5.30 a.m.	1.30 p.m.
2.	,,	1.0 p.m.	9.0 p.m.
3.	,,	9.45 p.m.	5.45 to 6.0 a.m.
1.	Men and overmen.	5.20 to 6 a.m.	1.0 to 1.40 p.m.
2.	,, ,,	1.0 to 1.30 p.m.	8.30 to 9.0 p.m.
3.	,, ,,	10.30 to 11 p.m.	5.30 to 6.0 a.m.

The total number of persons employed at the mine was 1,623, of whom 1,354 were employed underground, the number of hewers being 700.

At the time of the explosion there were 619 men in the mine. In the Ten Quarters Seam there were 49 hewers, 36 datal hands, two deputies and one overman.