The Minnie Pit disaster was a coal

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. C ...

that took place on 12 January 1918 in

Halmer End Halmer End is a small village in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, neighbouring the small hamlet of Alsagers Bank and the larger village of Audley. Population details as taken in the 2011 census can be found under Audley ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, in which 155 men and boys died. The disaster, which was caused by an explosion due to

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 ...

, is the worst ever recorded in the

North Staffordshire Coalfield The North Staffordshire Coalfield was a coalfield in Staffordshire, England, with an area of nearly , virtually all of it within the city of Stoke on Trent and the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, apart from three smaller coalfields, Shaffalong ...

. An official investigation never established what caused the ignition of flammable gases in the pit.

Background

Minnie Pit, which is named after Minnie Craig, the daughter of one of the owners, W.Y. Craig, was opened in 1881 in the small village of Halmer End,

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...

. At deep, it had been one of the most profitable pits in the

North Staffordshire The federation of Stoke-on-Trent was the 1910 amalgamation of the six Staffordshire Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. An anomaly in the history ...

coalfields because it mined five thick seams of good quality coal. It was the downcast shaft for the Podmore Hall Colliery, part of a wider industrial business that mined coal at the Burley Pit – the principal winding pit – on the Podmore Hall site, near

Apedale Apedale is a village in Staffordshire, England. The population at the 2011 census can be found under the Holditch (Ward) of Newcastle-under-Lyme. The village is home to the Apedale Community Country Park. The park is unusual for the area as it ...

. The business also included an ironworks, forge and coking ovens at Apedale. In 1890, the entire combine was formed into the Midland Coal, Coke and Iron Company Ltd. and apart from mining and iron making, the combine company had its own

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

, the Apedale and Podmore Hall Railway. Despite its profitability, Minnie was a dangerous pit because it had

. Two other explosions had already happened before the 1918 disaster. A blast killed all the

pit ponies A pit pony, otherwise known as a mining horse, was a horse, pony or mule commonly used underground in mines from the mid-18th until the mid-20th century. The term "pony" was sometimes broadly applied to any equine working underground.English ...

but no miners on 6 February 1898. Nine miners – including the

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

engineer, John White – were killed by an explosion on 17 January 1915. As both explosions had happened on Sundays, it had resulted in a relatively low loss of life. The prevalence of firedamp affected all the Podmore Hall Combine collieries. It caused a number of explosions at the Burley Pit: 23 killed on 23 March 1878; nine killed in June 1878; and ten killed on 2 April 1891. Coal was crucial to the country's efforts during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, with miners working to meet demand to fuel ships, power stations, and coke ovens, for home use and for the munitions industry. Many of those who ended up employed in the pits were either too young or too old to enlist in the military.

Explosion

On Saturday, 12 January 1918, 248 men and boys were working underground when a huge explosion tore apart the Bullhurst and Banbury Seams. Within minutes 155 workers died from the effects of the explosion, roof falls, or inhaling poisonous gases. Rescue teams from across the North Staffordshire Coalfield were quickly mobilised to search for survivors. During the rescue attempts, Hugh Doorbar, Captain of the Birchenwood Colliery No. 1 rescue team, was killed in the operation. His death brought the final death toll to 156; 44 of the dead were boys aged under 16. The explosions caused severe damage to the underground workings. Large sections of the pit had collapsed and

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

remained an ongoing problem. Search and recovery teams were at all times aware that further roof falls or explosions might occur. It took 18 months to recover all the bodies from the pit.

Investigation

A formal investigation of the causes and circumstances of the disaster was launched under section 83 of the

Coal Mines Act 1911 The Coal Mines Act 1911 amended and consolidated legislation in the United Kingdom related to collieries. A series of mine disasters in the 19th and early-20th centuries had led to commissions of enquiry and legislation to improve mining safety. T ...

. It was headed by William Walker CBE, acting Chief of His Majesty's Inspector of Mines (father of future Chief inspector of Mines Sir Henry Walker). The inquiry opened at King's Hall,

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...

in December 1919. The jury returned the following verdict, after hearing witness evidence from 40 persons: In summary, the jury concluded that no blame could be apportioned to any one individual but regulations should be issued for the treatment of coal dust. This was recommended because it was thought that the wholesale devastation of the mine was propagated by an abundance of dust.

Aftermath

The disaster placed a huge strain on the mining community at Halmer End and its neighbouring villages because their livelihoods depended on the colliery and its related industries. With World War I entering its fourth year, many families had now lost men at home on the Western Front. The

Miners Federation of Great Britain The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in Engla ...

established a relief fund, 6 s and 3 d a week were collected from miners and boys at other pits around the country. Financial assistance came from other relief efforts. The Podmore company paid out compensation to bereaved families. Nevertheless, many families were forced into poverty due to the loss of their main wage earners. In April 1930, the Minnie Pit along with the Podmore Hall Colliery closed at the start of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The company also shut down its foundry, railway, and iron-making plant. Thousands lost their jobs, sinking the area into a serious economic slump.

Legacy

In the early 1980s the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

and the local council erected a memorial to the disaster. The inscription reads:

Bible

One of the victims of the disaster, a miner named Samuel Richardson, was a prominent member of the local

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

chapel, and died with his Bible by his side. When his body was recovered, his Bible was returned to his wife, who gave it to his best friend. During a miners' strike in 1921, Samuel's Bible was to be sold in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

to provide relief for the striking miners. The news of the sale came to the attention of Samuel's son, who bought the Bible back for one

guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

. The bible is currently believed to be in the care of the descendants of Samuel Richardson.

References

{{reflist

External links

The Durham Mining Museum Site. List of all the dead miners from the Minnie Pit Disaster
1918 mining disasters 1918 in England Coal mining disasters in England Disasters in Staffordshire 20th century in Staffordshire 1918 disasters in the United Kingdom January 1918 events