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Weetslade Colliery is situated about seven miles to the North of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and adjoins Burradon Colliery, with which its workings are connected, but the two mines have separate systems of ventilation and are separately managed. Sunk in 1903, it is served by a shaft and a surface drift which are 200 yards apart. The former, which is the downcast, is 12 feet in diameter and is sunk to the Beaumont Seam at a depth of 1,140 feet, the coal winding level being at the Bensham Seam inset at a depth of 800 feet. The surface drift, which is the upcast, is provided with an Aeroto Fan passing 67,750 cubic feet of air per minute at a water gauge of 44 inches.

In descending order the seams worked are – the Five Quarter, High Main Yard, Bensham and Low Main, the first three of which, however, have no been worked for some years. Until a week before the explosion, when, as will be seen later, the output was reduced, the mine had been producing for a considerable time an average daily output of 700 tons, namely, 450 tons from the Low Main Seam and 250 tons from the Bensham Seam, employing 408 persons underground and 183 on the surface.

Management

The mine is one of three forming "C" Group of the No. 1 Area of the Northern (N. & C.) Division of the National Coal Board, and the principal officials on 1st October, 1951, were :–

The supervising staff underground consisted of six overmen and 32 deputies.

Safety Lamps

There is no history of a previous explosion at the mine, but inflammable gas had been considered to be a hazard and accordingly safety lamps have always been used. Those in general use were Oldham-Wheat Electric Cap Lamps; as gas detectors, Patterson A.1 Flame Safety Lamps and Patterson G.T.L.9 Relighter Safety Lamps were used by workmen and officials, respectively.

The Bensham Seam

This seam, which has a general dip of 1 in 22 to the south east, consists of 3 feet of top coal and 2 feet of bottom coal separated by a stone band, which varies from 5 inches to 3 feet 6 inches in thickness throughout the mine. The roof is of blue shale and the floor is a thick seggar. The coal, which has a volatile matter content on an ash-free dry basis of 36 per cent., is a good house and steam coal. Substantially, the method of working is the bord and pillar system in which places are arcwalled 14 feet wide to leave pillars 86 feet square and so give a 30 per cent. extraction. In 1944 the conditions were considered suitable for complete mechanisation, and caterpillar-mounted Universal arcwall coalcutting machines, Joy loaders, shuttle cars and a trunk belt conveyor system were introduced, all the equipment being electrically driven.

With mechanisation, the working places were more concentrated and worked more intensively. About six such places formed a Deputy's District, or "Flat" according to the local term. The cycle of operations was such that in each place an arcwall machine cut out the stone band, which was then loaded by Joy loader on to the shuttle cars and dumped in an old stenton where it was loosely stowed, the straight girder and prop supports in the latter being systematically withdrawn. The cut coal was then blasted and similarly loaded on to shuttle cars, from which it was discharged on to the belt conveyor system and so transported to the permanent loading station, known as the Hopper, situated at the inbye end of the South endless rope system, about 1,700 yards from the shaft.

The arcwall machines and Joy loaders, being portable, were supplied with power through flexible cables from a power supply which is described later. The shuttle cars, of 7 tons 16 cwts. tare and 4 tons carrying capacity, were pneumatically-tyred vehicles supplied with power from two lead-acid storage batteries coupled in series and carried, one on either side of the car, in fixed steel containers with wood-lined loose-fitting steel lids. Each battery, which weighed a ton and comprised 24 two-volt cells giving an electrical potential at the motors of 96 volts, had a capacity of 385 ampere-hours with a 6-hour period of discharge. Duplicate sets of batteries, which were changed at the end of the working shift, were provided for each shuttle car, so that while one set was in use the other could be on charge at a conveniently situated charging station appointed by the Manager, in accordance with the Special Regulations which were in force in regard to the use of shuttle cars at the mine.