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SIR,

In accordance with instructions received from you under the terms of Section 82 of the Coal Mines Act. 1911. I beg to submit my report on the causes of, and circumstances attending, the explosion which occurred at Weetslade Colliery. Northumberland, in the 3rd East District of the Bensham Seam, at 6.45 a.m. on 1st October, 1951, when a deputy and four workmen lost their lives.

Unfortunately a long period of time has elapsed between the explosion and the submission of this report. This has necessarily been so because the task of exploring the affected area and recovering the bodies of the victims developed into a very protracted operation, due to precautions which were taken to ensure safety following the discovery of unprecedented quantities of hydrogen gas in the atmosphere in the explosion area.

Throughout the long investigation, which started on the day of the explosion, many persons were questioned, at first to establish the exact location of the missing men, so keeping to a minimum the need for rescue workers venturing into an irrespirable atmosphere; and later, after hope of their rescue had been abandoned, to plan the various stages of the recovery work and the subsequent investigation into the cause of the explosion. Accordingly, witnesses were called upon to explain and comment upon events which had taken place a considerable time previously and to which at the time they perhaps understandably attached no significance.

On the 15th and 16th October, 1953, Mr. J. P. Dodds, H.M. Coroner for South Northumberland, sitting with a Jury at the Miners' Welfare Hall, Burradon, held an adjourned Inquest on the bodies of the five men and made a thorough and exhaustive enquiry into the circumstances attending the explosion. Every facility was given to me for calling and examining the witnesses, ten in all, and I take this opportunity of recording my appreciation and thanks to the Coroner for his courtesy. The verdict recorded was that the five men "died from the effects of an explosion at Weetslade Colliery on 1st October, 1951, and there was no evidence as to the cause of same."