An account of the dreadful explosion in Wallsend Colliery, on the 18th June, 1835, to which is added a list of explosions, inundations, &c. which have occurred in the Coal Mines of Northumberland and Durham ... : y John Sykes.
- Sykes, John, 1781 or 1782-1837
- Date:
- [1835?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An account of the dreadful explosion in Wallsend Colliery, on the 18th June, 1835, to which is added a list of explosions, inundations, &c. which have occurred in the Coal Mines of Northumberland and Durham ... : y John Sykes. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![state of the pit. Witness and Moor are the only deputies remaining; three other de- puties and one overman have been lost. John Bell, a hewer, living at Wallsend, gave the following evidence:—I have wrought in Wallsend colliery 19 years gone April last. Was last down on the day of the accident. Went down about a quarter past 2 in the morning, and return 'd to bank a little before 11. 1 was working in the broken at the east part of the colliery.— When I went to wosk in the morning, I did not find the pit at the broken so bad as 1 did the day before. I used a Davy lamp. There were other 5 men working at the same place, who all had Davy lamps. The day before the misfortune, the pit was in so dangerous a state that we were obliged to come away. We extinguished our Davy- lamps before leaving, except one man, who reduced his light as small as possible, so as to allow us to find our clothes. Edw. Cumby, an overman, previously left us to go to some men, who were working on the oilier side of the mother-gate, to warn them.— There are separation doors between the foul air and the fresh ; one of these doors may be about 60 yards from the headway where we go in to work, and the other door about 20 yards further on. The entire distance from where we were working to the outer door was about 136 yards. Nearly 2]^ yards from the outer door there is an oil lamp. I considered this lamp to be placed too near the separation doors, and desired one of the boys who kept the lamps, and who is lost, to shift it further out-bye, as I was appre- hensive that if any fall took place where we were working, which is a usual Occurrence, the gas would be forced with such violence against the separation doors as to force itself through them; and explode at the lamp. These doors were quite in order, except that they did not sufficiently fall to. Since I went into that part to work, 1 never consider- ed the door next the broken to have a sufficient fall. Was never afraid till the 17th, when a fall or crush occurred. Never mentioned to any of the overmen that I had apprehensions of the safety of the inner door, or that the lamp was too near the outermost door. On the 18th, when I went to work, the lamp I had complained of before was still in the same situation. It was not burning as 1 went to work, but on returning, I found it burning; and on passing the boy who had charge of the lamp, I repeated that it ought not to be there. 1 have not been down since, but from what I have heard, I have reason to believe that the pit did not fire at this place. I saw the overman, John Atkinson, at the place where I was working on the morning of the 17th, having sent for him in consequence of apprehensions of the stone coming down. The roof bearing heavily upon the props, it caused the bottom to lift, and a quantity of gas escaped from it. On the 17th, the gas that came away was so overpowering that we had to extinguish our Davys, as before mentioned. On the overman arriving, I pointed out to him the situation of the stone, and he said if she came heavier on the props, meaning that if the stone was likely to fall, we were to take up the plates. About 4 or 5 hours after this, the stone did fall, and the consequence was, that the gas was forced out to a great distance from the broken wall. The lamps then became red hot, and we extinguished them as soon as possible, excepting the lamp before named ; and we left immediately. Cumby, the deputy, was present when the stone fell, and left, as before stated, to lay the other men off. The men who were working with me on the 17th were Charles Swan and Matthew Buddie, on the west side, and on the east side were, Thos. Rutherford, Thos. Wilkinson, and Jacob Maddison. On the succeeding day, this particular place was m a much more workable state, otherwise we could not have gone into it. There was a very partial fall of stone that morning, but it did not prevent us continuing our work. We left work a quarter before 11 o’clock in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22485302_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
