Whitfield Colliery

Early in the shift, which started at 10 o'clock, the 16-year old William Moreton and some other young miners had lit a coal fire, for warmth it would seem, at the site of an underground smithy. This had got out of hand by 11 o'clock and attempts to control the fire included sending down buckets to douse the flames with an underground feed point. The potential for explosion was exacerbated by the position of the smithy in relation to the ventilation arrangements.

The track from Ball Green enters the colliery near to the Laura pithead and as Stephen passed by, the smoke coming from the shaft was thick and black. Coal workings require forced ventilation to remove toxic and inflammable gases. This is done by having 2 shafts to the seam and blowing air down one and up the other. The coal seam being worked was named the Coxhead and it was delivering 800 tons a day. To service this Coxhead seam the downdraft shaft was called the Institute and the up-draft shaft was the Laura. Clearly there was no access to the mine down that shaft.

Stephen turn left beyond Laura and headed the remaining 120 yards to the Institute pithead. The mere half dozen men on the bank at the Institute did not reflect the seriousness of the situation. A somewhat agitated manager Edward Thompson was directing people around. He had been called somewhat earlier, when it was judged the fire was getting out of hand.

Henry Stubbs junior had just experienced hearing Thompson instruct his 38 year old carpenter father also named Henry to go down the pit. They would not see each other again. Cain Mayer also went down. Henry Stubbs junior was instructed to go and cut two larch bars 18 feet and 12 feet long.

Thomas Vickers a fireman was there. His father was also a fireman, age 54 had gone down the pit half an hour earlier. They would not see each other again. A man who stood back from the action was James Atherton who was in theory the Colliery Manager but had been sidelined weeks before for his ineffectiveness. He looked on impassively.

John Thompson, the son of the manager arrived at the pithead at the same time as Stephen, but from the opposite direction. The cage was just coming to the surface as Stephen arrived and Edward Thompson, also son of the manager emerged with a rescued horse. Edward passed the horse over and he immediately got back into the cage. It was Stephen’s instinct to join him to descend into the mine to bring the remaining night shift to the surface. As he put one foot on the cage, Edward Thompson senior shouted “Get out” Stephen obeyed the instruction on the basis that he sometimes know better than me, and headed for the rescue station to see the record of those still not accounted for. He had barely gone 100 yards when there was an almighty explosion behind him. On turning the whole of the area was lit by a column of flame 30 feet high billowing from Laura pithead.

There was pandemonium at Institute pithead and he ran back immediately to witness an awful site. It would appear that men had attempted to descend Institute even after the Colliery Manager, Edward Thompson, had ordered Stephen Offer and Edward Thompson junior not to go down. There was mayhem. The force of the explosion underground had blown the Institute cage upwards with disastrous effect. Men were injured all round. John Thompson junior was lying on the ground mortally wounded.

It would appear that the edge of the cage, in its upward motion had caught him under the chin. Edward Thompson junior, who was actually in the un-descending cage, suffered a broken leg. Edward Thompson Senior was injured as well as others. Although it was not apparent at the time, Henry Boulton, who was also in the cage was blown out of the top of the cage and into the winding gear. He was there for some hours before his body was found. It was 3.10 a.m.

The mind of Stephen Offer was brought back to the inquiry with a jolt. “ You are required to appear before the Coroner to give evidence.”

The Coroner, “What is your name?”

“Stephen Offer”

“What are you?”

“I was underlooker at the Institute pit.”

“Where do you live?”

“Norton Green”

“What time did you go to the colliery on the night of the explosion?”

“I arrived there somewhere about three o clock”

“Shortly before the explosion?”

“Yes the explosion occurred a few minutes after I was there.”

“Did you go down the pit?”

“No”

Stephen was interviewed for over an hour in which time he answered over 200 questions with clarity and confidence.

Evidence was taken over 7 days during which time the detail of what had happened on that terrible February night was pieced together through the responses to questions asked of 29 employees of the mine and 2 inspectors. The questioning examined 2 aspects. To enquire into the cause of death of Samuel Vickers, John Thompson and Henry Boulton and secondly to establish whether the Colliery Manager, Edward Thompson had allowed his men to run unnecessary risk and that the main objective was saving pit horses rather than protection the lives of the men.

Finally on Wednesday 14 th June the Coroner gave his summing up which took about an hour. (The proceedings published later covered 79 pages.) The room was cleared about 5 o clock; and the jury intimated that they had arrived at a verdict at 6.20 p.m. “Gentlemen have you agreed upon your verdict?” The Foreman “Yes” “What is it”

“The jury think the position of the smithy was a mistake and a great error of judgement. Also we fund that Mr. Thompson did not take sufficient care of the men under his charge, by not withdrawn them from and by not preventing Henry Boulton and Samuel Vickers from descending the pit, he knowing the dangerous state of the mine at the time, and we find him of culpable negligence, thereby causing the deaths of Samuel Vickers and Henry boulton. It will amount to a verdict of manslaughter.” So ended the weeklong enquiry into the explosion at the Whitfield colliery.

Had Stephen Offer stepped into the cage he may well have been killed, but fortunately he did not. Within a short time he was appointed Under-manager at Norton Colliery and then developed his own skills as an adventurous mining and railway entrepreneur. In 1894 he was elected into the first Cheadle Parish Council.

In 1896 he was the owner and manager of Delphhouse Colliery and lived with his wife and 7 children at the Elms, a fine house in its time, on the bank above it. But the mines did not deliver and in 1902 he emigrated from England to South Africa, where he ultimately became a very successful sugar farmer. He was a philanthropist and a pillar of society in Eshowe, Zululand until his death in 1930.

Gordon Elsey

April 2007