This is a list of

mining accident A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. ...

s in the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

at which five or more people were killed. Mining deaths have occurred wherever coal has been mined across 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 f ...

. The earliest deaths were recorded in

parish register A parish register in an ecclesiastical parish is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and names of the parents), ma ...

s. Ffrancis Taylior was buried at the

Collegiate Church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

after a fall in the "coale pitte" in 1622 and in 1661 or 1662, Thomas Hilton was "slain" at Bradford coal pit as was Thos Greene in 1664. Coal pit related deaths appear in the registers of

Wigan Parish Church All Saints' Church in Wallgate, Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, is an Anglican parish church. It is in the deanery of Wigan, the archdeaconry of Warrington and the Diocese of Liverpool. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List ...

from the 1670s. In 1779 three "Poor Coaliers" were reported as being injured when the roof collapsed in a coal pit at

Alkrington Alkrington Garden Village is a suburban area of Middleton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester England. Historically a part of Lancashire, in the Middle Ages Alkrington was a township in the parish of Prestwich-cum- ...

so that "their lives were dispared of..." When the coal industry developed rapidly in the 19th century, labour and life were cheap. Men, women and children perished in explosions, roof falls, floods and haulage accidents. The Lancashire Coalfield, the seventh largest producer of coal in the 1870s, often had the highest accident figures.

William Pickard William Pickard (10 February 1821 – 21 October 1887) was a British trade unionist. Born in Aspull Moor in Lancashire, Pickard worked at a colliery from an early age. He became active in the Wigan District Miners' Union and, despite being ...

, the miners' agent, championed the formation of the

Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Permanent Relief Society The Lancashire and Cheshire Miners Permanent Relief Society (LCMPRS) was a form of friendly society started in 1872 to provide financial assistance to miners who were unable to work after being injured in industrial accidents in collieries on the L ...

in 1872 after a spate of disasters that caused great distress and hardship, leaving widows and families destitute. Most fatalities were caused by

firedamp Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the releas ...

, some caused by the miners who took the tops off the

safety lamp A safety lamp is any of several types of lamp that provides illumination in coal mines and is designed to operate in air that may contain coal dust or gases, both of which are potentially flammable or explosive. Until the development of effectiv ...

s that were designed to protect them because of the poor light they gave out. Some mineowners turned a blind eye to the use of candles in even the gassiest coal seams. To regulate working conditions, the government passed

Acts of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliament ...

: the 1842 Act prohibited the employment of females and boys under 10 years old and appointed a single inspector, but inspections were few and breaches were common. Acts passed in subsequent years led to the appointment of more inspectors and increased their powers to regulate how mines were operated and the working conditions and welfare of the miners. After disasters the first rescuers were colliery managers and volunteer colleagues who descended into the pits to look for signs of life, rescue the injured, seal off underground fires and recover bodies while working in dangerous conditions sometimes at great cost to themselves. Apart from

s to detect gases, they had no special equipment. They were the predecessors of the

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 ...

teams. Mines rescue stations were recommended in a Royal Commission in 1886 but were not compulsory until after the Coal Mines Act 1911 was passed. In 1906 a committee of the Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Owners Association decided to provide a mines rescue station at

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 ...

. Its trained rescuers were present at the

Maypole A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, around which a maypole dance often takes place. The festivals may occur on 1 May or Pentecost (Whitsun), although in some countries it is instead erected at ...

and Pretoria Pit disasters. They also trained teams of men in pits throughout the coalfield.

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 ...

opened in November 1933 close to the

East Lancashire Road The A580 (officially the Liverpool–East Lancashire Road, colloquially the East Lancs Road) is the United Kingdom's first purpose-built inter-city highway. The road, which remains a primary A road, was officially opened by King George V on 18 ...

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See also

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