Jacob Tipton, Fenton

Samuel Thornton, Fenton

Alfred Tomkinson, Fenton

Peter Bolderstone, Longton

William Shone, Longton

William Barker, Longton

I recently found details of a mining accident at Annesley Colliery on June 1877 - I would recommend this site for anyone searching for family history links:-
http://www.blacksheepindex.co.uk

Mr Evan's Report page 91

Fatal Colliery Accident - June 27th 1877 Annesley, Notts
Suffocated by noxious gasses arising from a recent fire in main road at which they were trying to clear away.

In memory of seven miners
who lost their lives in connection with a fire in Annesley Colliery
June 27th 1877 namely
of Thomas Webster aged 46 Joseph Pickard aged 30 and George Rye aged 26
These three died in attempting a rescue
"Boast not thyself of tomorrow"

William Waplington aged 37
Thomas Ward aged 36
and Joseph Bradbury aged 17
interred here and Samuel Abbott aged 21
interred in St John's Churchyard Kirkby

"Casting all your care on Him"

Cause of Death and Remarks:-
Suffocation by noxious gases arising from a recent fire in the main road, and which they were endeavouring to clear away.

I have another paragraph from page 90 and a 'map' - all the details were obtained from 'Derek' compiler of the Black Sheep Index for a modest fee, simply using name and date - if anyone should get in touch will willingly pass on or share information but prefer you not to add my email address.

Barbara Grayson

My husband has just found the plan of the incident in a book published for the NUM -
ISBN 0 86190 046 4

The Nottinghamshire Coalfield 1881 - 1981 A Century of Progress A R Griffin
(Moorland Publishing on behalf of NUM)
Safety & Rescue 86

Annesley disaster plan. The victims were overcome by carbon monoxide after a quite mild explosion. This was a furnace ventilated mine.

	A problem with safety lamps was that managements often thought a build up of gas, caused by a lack of ventilation, could be solved by issuing safety lamps, they considered ventilation was no longer an issue and work carried on as normal. Consequently there were explosions but they did not kill many people.

The most serious explosion in Nottinghamshire in the nineteenth century occurred at Annesley Pit where seven men died. At Annesley, the seven men killed in 1877 survived the explosion but were overcome with ‘after damp’, carbon monoxide. ‘After Damp’ killed more miners after an explosion of fire-damp than anything else. By the time of the Annesley explosion, most large collieries in Nottinghamshire used fan ventilation but Annesley still relied on a furnace for its ventilation.

Some collieries were also now insisting on the use of flame safety lamps, although cheap paraffin lamps with a naked flame were popular in Nottinghamshire between 1847, when a spring of petroleum was discovered at James Oakes Riddings Colliery, and 1880 when the Mines Inspector insisted on the discontinuance of such lamps following a fatal accident to a boy at Wollaton Colliery. The chief opposition to flame safety lamps now came from the men, because they gave a poorer light than candle or ordinary paraffin lamps and this affected the pace at which the men could work consequently their use was by no means general until after 1900.

Some miners said that they would rather work for 2.1/2d a day less with a candle than work with a safety lamp. The controversy once begun continued in both aspects, medical and economics, for some thing like twenty years and led to court investigations into miners 'Nystagmus'.

Nystagmus is an uncontrolled movement of the eyes, usually from side to side, but sometimes the eyes swing up and down or even in a circular movement. Most people with nystagmus have reduced vision. Nystagmus reached the proportions of a scourge between 1880 and the 1920’s when electric lamps having a higher standard of illumination became common.