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LAMB BUILDING,

TEMPLE,

London, E.C.,

20th December, 1906.

SIR,

As instructed by you I attended the Adjourned Inquest on the bodies of the 24 men who were killed in the explosion at the Wingate Grange Colliery, at Wingate, in the County of Durham, on the 14th October, 1906, at 20 minutes to 12 p.m., this being a Sunday night.

The Inquest had been opened on the 17th October, when evidence of identification of 23 bodies then recovered was taken, and adjourned pursuant to Section 48 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, till the 31st October.

The Inquest was resumed on the 31st October, before the Coroner, Mr. Crofton Maynard, and continued on the 1st and 2nd of November.

Mr. R. Donald Bain and Mr. J. B. Atkinson, His Majesty's Inspectors of Mines, were present throughout the whole of the proceedings, and took an active and most useful part in the Inquiry.

Mr. Mulligan, Barrister, instructed by the Honourable Charles Russell, represented the Trustees and Officials of the Mine.

Mr. H. F. Heath, Solicitor, appeared for the representatives of the deceased workmen, and for the Durham Miners' Association.

The following officials of the Durham Miners' Association were also present :– Alderman W. House (President), Mr. J. Wilson, M.P., Mr. J. Johnson, M.P., Mr. S. Galbraith and Mr. T. H. Cann.

The Wingate Grange Colliery is owned by the Executors of Mr. John Gully. The Estate is administered by the Court of Chancery.

Of the Trustees of the Estate only one is now living, Mr. Molloy, but he has never taken any active part in the management of the Colliery.

The Certificated Manager and Agent of the Colliery is Mr. William Armstrong, a Mining Engineer of great eminence, and with extensive experience of mining operations in the County of Durham and elsewhere.

The Under-Manager is Mr. Robert Owen, who holds a Second Class Certificate, and has had considerable mining experience.

The staff of under officials were generally those required by Statute and the Special Rules of the Colliery, and appear to have been sufficient and efficient.

The colliery has two shafts, the up-cast shaft and the down-cast shaft, each about 14½ feet in diameter.

Five seams are or have been worked in the mine; they are the following :– The Five Quarter seam, depth from surface of shaft about 74 fathoms; the Main Coal seam, depth about 89 fathoms; the Low Main seam, depth about 110 fathoms; the Hutton seam, depth about 129 fathoms ; and the Harvey seam, depth about 153 fathoms.

Both the shafts are sunk to the lowest or Harvey seam, and the up-cast shaft about 4 fathoms below this seam.

In addition to the main shafts there are subsidiary shafts or staples between the seams, the most important of which were, a staple between the Main Coal and Harvey seams, a staple between the Low Main and Harvey seams, and a staple between the Low Main and Main Coal seams.

The Main Coal seam has not been worked for some time. The main workings are in the Low Main and Harvey seams, and these extended in both cases over a considerable area.

The miners going and returning from work used both shafts.

I have had the opportunity of reading the exhaustive report made as to this disaster by Mr. Bain and Mr. Atkinson, His Majesty's Inspectors of Mines, in which a very full description is given of the mine, its workings, and methods of work.

I therefore do not purpose to deal with these matters, save in so far as they were investigated at the inquiry as having a possible bearing upon the accident. I propose to confine my report to the results of the explosion as affecting life, its cause or causes, and the means which in my opinion should be adopted to guard against like occurrences.