The Disaster
WOOD PIT. Haydock, Lancashire. 7th. June, 1878.

An underground meeting of engineers was held at the furnace in the High Delf Mine. Present were Messrs Hedley, Chadwick and Pickard, the Miner’s Agent and managers from Pemberton and Bickershaw collieries and Cross Tetley & Co.. Three possibilities were considered at the meeting. One to relight the furnace, secondly to put in additional steam jest to those already being used and thirdly to fit a powerful fan to try to clear the gas from the workings. At about four on Saturday afternoon the meeting was adjourned to the surface. The first was considered to dangerous with so much gas in the mine and if a fan was erected, then all the underground work would have to stop. The decision was taken to introduce more steam jets in the upcast shaft and the work was completed by eight on Sunday morning.

The work of clearing the roads and recovering the bodies could then continue and the exploring parties under the direction of Mr. Chadwick, Mr Dickenson, another Mines inspector that had arrived at the colliery to offer assistance, Isaac Billinge the manager of Leigh Pit in Haydock and had lived through two other explosions at that pit and Messrs. Hedley and Pickard went below. The conditions were appalling and extremely dangerous and the morale of the men took a serious set back when one of the rescue teams, James Callaghan of Ashton, was buried under a sudden fall of roof. He was working at the entrance of a tunnel to the Florida Mine and was completely buried by the fall. He was quickly dug out and found to have sustained two broken legs and to be severely crushed about the body. He was taken to the Cottage Hospital in Sutton St, Helens where he died later that night. He was aged twenty seven years and lived in Lodge Lane . Ashton with is wife who did not enjoy good health and a ten year old son who was on the pit bank when his injured father was brought out of the pit.

On the Saturday morning the Inspector of mines received a telegram from Mr. Cross, the Home Secretary which read:-
"Make all efforts to save survivors, if any, at risk. I await particulars with deep anxiety. Express deep sympathy for me. You will of course, communicate with me fully."

Mr. Hedley replied:-
“We have done our best to save life, but unfortunately, all hope was lost from the first. We have had consultations with the engineers as to the best means to recover the bodies, the owners and all interested thank you for you sympathy.”

The men were still working below, building brick stoppings to cut off the ventilation to the other mines so that all the available air could pass through the workings of the Florida Mine and during the night, under the direction of Mr, Hedley and Mr. Pickard, the stopping of nine inch brickwork were put in. By these efforts the flow of air passing thorough the workings rose to twelve thousand cubic feet per minute.

Mr. Chadwick was pleased with the progress and considered a fourth steam jet. He went home at ten o’clock at night leaving instructions for the upcast shaft to be covered with three inch planks so that the cold night air would not condense the stem from the jets and all the return air to be sent up the upcast chimney.

The Reverend Sherlock, the Vicar of Haydock, had spent most of the day at the colliery and visiting the men who had survived, in their homes. His sermon on the Whit Sunday captured the sombre mood that prevailed in the village. The tone was simple and sympathetic as he spoke to his flock as one who shared their grief and desolation.

At the morning service at St. Thomas’s in Ashton, Rev H. Siddall also spoke of the disaster. Two of the survivors were in the church. Aaron Marsh and James Heaton gave public thanks to almighty God for their deliverances. the congregation was deeply affected by the tragedy and the Rev, Siddall had great difficulty in getting through the service. He spoke of the trials and tribulations of life.

Both Rev. Sherlock and Rev. Siddall knew that the death of a collier caused greet hardship within the family but, as we shall see, later the disaster caused such a great deal of public sympathy that many donations were made to the Relief fund for the victim’s families.

Monday 10th. June brought developments at the pit. During the night a forth steam jet had been rigged in the upcast shaft and this was successful in drawing in more air through the pit. Steady progress was made with the brickwork stoppings. Mr Hall the government Inspector for the area had now arrived at the colliery and he and Mr Chadwick supervised the work with the Inspector for the Manchester area, Mr Dickenson. The work went well but proceeded with great caution as there was still a very large amount of gas flowing into the workings.

The top of the jig brown on the working side of the mine was reached on Monday morning and it was possible to start the recovery of the majority of the bodies. the scene that met the rescuers was one of utter devastation and destruction. stoppings, Bratticing and large sections of roof which had fallen due to the supports being blown out. The bodies of the men and horses were scorched, blackened and mangled, many had had their clothes burned off, some had been blown round the workings, coming to rest on the top of the large falls of roof. these large falls were left even though it was thought that there might be a body under them and only the bodies that were easily reached were taken to the pit bottom. They each had a ticket attached to them to say where they were found and assigned a number. The position where the body was found was marked on a plan of the mine.

By eight on the Monday morning, nineteen corpses were at the pit bottom and they had been removed to the surface by eight thirty. Great care was taken so as not to cause the waiting families any undue suffering. a minimum of activity was made as they arrived at the pit head and once on the surface they were carefully hidden and taken to a waiting railway truck, to a point south of the winding apparatus and from there by colliery carts and wagons were waiting to take their sad burdens across the fields to the stable yard near the main colliery offices of Richard Evans & Co. which was used as an emergency mortuary. The more usual route through the village was avoided.

At the temporary mortuary in the stable yard, women of the village volunteered to clean the bodies and lay them out on wooden trestle tables that had been erected. Men made the coffins in the workshop across the yard and the cleaned bodies, after being made presentable as possible, were place in them. The clothes that had been found with the body were place at the foot of the coffins.

This sad task was completed by noon and by this time a dense crowd had gathered round the doorway waiting until they were told to enter and try to identify their husbands, sons and friends. They had waited along time and not even a heavy thunder storm had dispersed them. the men stood silent with downcast eyes that seemed glazed with grief and the women rocked themselves back and forth as they walked around aimlessly.

As the bodies were brought out of the mine and identified the County Coroner, Mr. Driffield opened the inquest into the disaster at the Rams Head hotel in Haydock. Evidence of identification of the victims was taken from the person who had made the identification and an order for the interment was then made by the coroner, the family were then allowed to take the body home and make the funeral arrangements. Within two hours only three coffins remained unclaimed. Some coffins were taken away on a hearse but the majority were borne on spring carts with sad eyed men and women around them as they made their way to Earlestown, Ashton or the scattered rows of cottages in Haydock.

More sad tales were emerging. The drawers were in many cases, known only by their nick manes such as ‘Slop’, ‘Canary’ and ‘Jo’ and their real names were known only to the collier with whom they lodged so they could be identified only by a surviving member of the household. It was realised that the Boon family had lost five members and probably six. A woman who lost two sons in this explosion, had three sons in the Queen pit explosion, two of which were killed but the third escaped and died later of smallpox.

Many of the victims came from the Mold area of North wales and a young woman is reported to have arrived at the railway station at Earlestown and started making enquiries abut the fate of her husband. some of the dead from this area were sent home in a special train.

It became clear the Edward Sutton of Ashton, who was in the Main Delf Mine at the time of the explosion, took the wrong way out of the pit, got lost and became a victim of the afterdamp. All the men that were working with him at the time escaped safely.

When his body was discovered he was described as a ‘noble figure with a calm face that was so striking’ in a report in the Wigan Observer and Advertiser. As the day drew to a close, twenty four bodies had been recovered and only three remained in the mortuary as yet unidentified.