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The men asked questions and made suggestions and even some good-natured banter began to seep into the serious take, which built the trust Greatbatch wanted before allowing them to venture up towards the old pit The men new he was an expert in mining affairs and a flare for leadership which impressed them and guided them to safety up to the old Bursted Onion shaft.

By 1.30 pm within their time limit the group stood shivering, tattered and torn, blinking in the brassy sunlight. With a loud cheer they greeted their leaded.

For some of the survivors their joy was tempered with grief. Their kith and kin were still in the pit. An Edward Johnson was told that his two young sons, Fred age 17 and Oliver 14 were missing. Harold Dean whose eldest brother was killed in France learned that his other 2 brothers were trapped below ground. The Captain of Straley Brook football team, which was to have played an important match that afternoon, was informed that 7 members of his team were dead.

Among the 12 survivors brought up by the Minnie pit rescue team were two brothers, Wilson and Jesse Taylor, both of whom had escaped death by inches, while their workmates had died violently only a few yards away from them.

Night fell on the village of Halmerend, a miserable night. People still stood around in groups discussing the day’s disaster. They were exhausted, worried and overwrought and the night was bitterly coal. Six homes adjacent to each other had lost 13 members of their families.

Hugh Doorbar, Captain of No.1 Birchenwood colliery rescue team led his men into Lockett’s Dip in attempt to penetrate Bateman’s Dip. “What a mess!” was his comment, as he surveyed the extensive roof fall in Lockett’ Dip, over which his team had to crawl. A whiff of musty air assailed their nostrils, they made tests for gas, which proved negative, but their oil lamps began to burn low and this was ominous. Thereupon Doorbar ordered his team to couple up their oxygen breathing apparatus.

Realising that his team were tired and weary, he advised them to sit down and rest, while he himself went further inbye to investigate. He had not gone 40 yards when suddenly he was seen to struggle around and was heard to cry out “Oh my apparatus” The team rushed to his aid but were unable to cope with so powerful a man, who was now fighting for his life. His apparatus had a faulty valve. Some of his men had their nose-clips knocked off, which endangered their lives. Doorbar ceased to struggle. The gas had done its dirty work the Captain laid dead. The team’s exhausted condition precluded the idea of carrying so heavy a man back to base.

Doorbar’s body was retrieved at 4.30 am on Monday morning by Thomas Machin, Captain of No.2 Birchenwood colliery rescue team, thus the Minnie pit claimed a victim from a neighbouring colliery. The funeral of Hugh Doorbar took place on January 19 th. The village of Rookery had been in mourning since the accident. A large crowd followed the cortege to the Wesleyan cemetery at Kidsgrove.

The Bullhurst was divided into 4 districts, to facilitate the quick sealing off in case of gob fires. The explosion occurred in No.4 district Bullhurst seam, more than a mile away from the pit bottom and underneath Audley village. The blast with vicious savagery, cut a swath of devastation right through No’s 3, 2, 1 and into the Banbury Dip, then up into the Rearers and the Banbury districts, North and South. Its passage caused a massive cracking of roof supports, which brought the roof crashing down in clouds of dust. Miners further away had time to scramble along the coal face, those who were not killed outright had a few minutes crawl to whatever shelter they could find, only to be overcome by carbon monoxide gas.

Worst of all was the fate of the men and boys employed along the haulage routes whose occupations place them directly in the path of the blast which tossed them aside like straw dolls over the scorched earth and smack up against the rocky sides of the roadway. The wreckage of man, beasts and equipment was piteous and appalling. Battered air-pipes were blown away and twisted girders festooned the landings and roadways. Solid brick stoppings were reduced to rubble while loaded and empty tubs were rammed into the roof. Pit ponies still harnessed to their tubs lay grotesquely on top of their boy drivers. Articles and clothing and other personal affects, parts of the human body, littered the roadways. “Such a site I never want to see again,” wrote one of the Inspectors of Mines.

A pathetic find saddened the rescue squad as they arrived in Slant’s Dip. Father and son, George and Jabez Burgess lay side by side as if asleep. The son had his arm around his father’s neck, while the father’s head reclined on his son’s shoulder. Placing them on stretchers and covering their faces with clean sacks, the squad carried them to transfer points, where they could be taken to the surface.

Another rescue team were working on a damaged air crossing and one was sent to get some brattice cloth, he indicated to his Captain to “come here and have a look”. There seated upright, unscathed but dead, was Sam Richardson of High Street Halmerend. His spectacles were still perched on the end of his nose and an open bible rested on his knees. He had died from suffocation. Richardson was a well-known local preacher and one assumes he was in the act of preparing his Sunday sermon during his snapping break. Sam was a good man, commented the Captain. “ He died as he had lived, with his bible in his hand.”

Splitting into allocations, rescue teams from Burly, Fenton, Silverdale and Norton collieries headed inbye towards the four districts. After much hard work in rescue and recovery, on Tuesday January 15 th attempts were made to penetrate the Bullhurst but, roof falls and gob fires precluded any idea of any more survivors. Mr. Davies manager of Silverdale colliery gave orders to his colliery team to seal off the area.

The Norton colliery rescue team with its Captain Sam Allman had the unenviable task of bringing out up 4 brothers to the surface. Their father, a blind man, was waiting pathetically near the pit top and still calling out the names of his sons. “Take me to them Mr. Allman and place my hand on each of their foreheads so that I may kiss each one.” Mr. Allman’s son still has the medal, which his father received for rescue work in the Minnie pit.