HAPTON VALLEY
Burnley, Lancashire. 22nd March 1962

Hapton Valley Colliery was in the N.C.B. North West Division on the boundary of the County Borough of Burnley. The structure of management was Mr. R. Lowe, Area General Manager Mr. J. Whittaker, Area Production Manager Mr. W.E. Rawstron, Group Manager Mr. A.L. Wier Manager, and Mr. R. O’Hara Undermanager.

On the day of the explosion, Mr. B. Kennedy, a certificated colliery manager was in charge of the colliery in the absence of Mr. Weir. The colliery, which employed three hundred and eighty six men below ground and sixty seven on the surface, had a daily output of about 700 tons of saleable coal all got from two faces Nos.2 and 5 in the Union Seam.

The colliery had three shafts. No.3 was the downcast shaft used for winding men coal and materials, No.4 was the upcast shaft used for winding men only and the No.2 shaft was used for pumping water. The No.4 shaft was equipped with an electrically driven exhausting fan producing 112,000 cubic feet of air per minute and 4.3 inches of water gauge.

Following the completion in January 1962 a surface drift, 1,260 yards long and dipping at a gradient of 1 in 4.16 was brought into use as a second intake. Before this a drift connected with the mine workings, the ventilation of the mine had been assisted by a booster fan situated in the main return airway about half a mile from the bottom of the upcast shaft. Because it no longer made a significant contribution to the ventilation of the mine, the booster fan was taken out of commission and put on a care and maintenance basis in March 1962.

The colliery had always been a safety lamp mine and in addition to the electric cap lamps in general use flame safety lamps were issued to officials and elected workmen as firedamp detectors. These lamps were of the internal relighter type.

The Union Seam was 171 yards deep at the shafts and the only one that was worked at the colliery and was from 3 feet 4 inches to 3 feet 9 inches thick with a hard fireclay floor and a roof of medium strong shale. As a result of faulting, the cover at the face of No.2 District was 242 yards. The seam was gassy and in before this explosion there had been three ignitions of firedamp at the colliery.

On the No.1 face, which was discontinued, there was an ignition during shotfiring on 23rd June 1960 and another in the undercut attributed to frictional sparking on 28 th July 1960. The third ignition also ascribed to fictional sparking in the undercut occurred, in No.2 return gate stable on 4th April 1961.

To reduce the risk of ignition in the undercut, the management had installed cutting jibs with an internal water feed. The cutting machine on the main face line was also fitted with a compressed air/water ejector for ventilating the undercut, but this additional safeguard could not be applied to the machines that were undercutting in the stables.

The No.2 face was 155 yards long and was advancing southwards in the solid on a rising gradient of 1 in 6.25 with a very slight rise from the intake gate to the return gate. It was started in September 1960 and the face had advanced 765 yards at a rate of about 10 yards per week. The No.5 face was advancing in the same direction and was 400 yards behind and 33 yards to the east of the No.2 face.

At the face, the coal was cut about 1 foot above the floor level by an electrically driven machine mounted on an armoured flexible conveyor. Until the 3rd. February 1962, the depth of the cut was 6 feet 6 inches but on that day the jib was changed and the depth of the cut increased to 7 foot 6 inches.

Coal in the stables was cut at the floor level by shortwall machines. After cutting all the coal was won by explosives and compressed air picks. The same type of explosive was used in taking down the ripping gate which were kept well up to the face. The normal cycle of face operations was as follows:.-

The afternoon shift advanced the face conveyor, drilled shot holes in the face, withdrew supports from the waste, drilled and cut the stables and ripped the intake gate. The night shift ripped the return gate, cut the face line and commenced filling.

The day shift completed the filling.

The roof at the face was supported by friction type props set to corrugated steel bars 8 feet long. Additional frictional props were set as breakers at the edge of the waste which was completely caved between the six yards wide intake gate pack and the 8 yards wide return gate pack. The intake gate was 14 feet wide and 10 feet high and the return gate, 10 feet wide and 8 feet high. These were supported by arched steel girders which were tilted and backed with by fire resistant wood boards.

The coal from the conveyor face was transferred to a belt conveyor in the intake gate. This was the first stage of a trunk conveyor belt system to the bottom of the shaft.