![Mines rescue gear and Howe Bridge certificate](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Mines_rescue_gear_and_Howe_Bridge_certificate.JPG)
Howe Bridge Mines Rescue Station was the first
mines rescue
Mine rescue or mines rescue is the specialised job of rescuing miners and others who have become trapped or injured in underground mines because of mining accidents, roof falls or floods and disasters such as explosions.
Background
Mining la ...
station on the
Lancashire Coalfield
The Lancashire Coalfield in North West England was an important British coalfield. Its coal seams were formed from the vegetation of tropical swampy forests in the Carboniferous period over 300 million years ago.
The Romans may have been the fir ...
opened
in 1908 in
Howe Bridge
Howe Bridge is a suburb of Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. Historically within Lancashire, it is situated to the south west of Atherton town centre on the B5215, the old turnpike road from Bolton to Leigh. The settlement was built as a mod ...
,
Atherton, then in the
historic county of Lancashire, England.
Before Britain's first mines rescue station opened at
Tankersley in Yorkshire in 1902, pit managers and volunteers were usually the first untrained mines rescuers. They fought fires, rescued victims and recovered bodies in the collieries in which they worked. Rescue stations were recommended in a
Royal Commission in 1886 but were not compulsory until after the 1911 Coal Mines Act was passed. In 1906 the Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Owners Association formed a committee which decided to provide a mines rescue station in Lovers Lane Atherton.
The first rescuers were provided with
Siebe Gorman Proto breathing apparatus which was selected by competition. A team from the rescue station was tasked with training rescue teams from each colliery, and provided emergency assistance to collieries throughout the
Lancashire Coalfield
The Lancashire Coalfield in North West England was an important British coalfield. Its coal seams were formed from the vegetation of tropical swampy forests in the Carboniferous period over 300 million years ago.
The Romans may have been the fir ...
.
Teams from the rescue station attended disasters at the Maypole Colliery in
Abram
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews ...
in 1908 and the
Pretoria Pit Disaster in 1910.
The station closed in 1934 when
Boothstown Mines Rescue Station
Boothstown Mines Rescue Station which served the collieries of the Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Owners on the Lancashire Coalfield opened in November 1933 on a site in Boothstown, close to the East Lancashire Road. The mines rescue station is Gr ...
, the central rescue station for the coalfield, became operative.
See also
*
List of mining disasters in Lancashire
This is a list of mining accidents in the historic county of Lancashire at which five or more people were killed. Mining deaths have occurred wherever coal has been mined across the Lancashire Coalfield. The earliest deaths were recorded in par ...
References
Bibliography
*
{{coord, 53.517, -2.5104, display=title, region:GB_type:landmark
Mining in Lancashire
Rescue
Mine safety
Atherton, Greater Manchester