The Oaks explosion
Encyclopedia
Stairfoot
Stairfoot is a village in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England.It is perhaps so named because it lies in the valley bottom between the directly opposed undulations of two small hills on the old road from Barnsley to Doncaster....
, Barnsley
Barnsley
Barnsley is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Dearne, north of the city of Sheffield, south of Leeds and west of Doncaster. Barnsley is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, of which Barnsley is the largest and...
, South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
on 12 December 1866 killing more than 380 miners and rescuers. The disaster happened after a series of explosions caused by flammable gases
Firedamp
Firedamp is a flammable gas found in coal mines. It is the name given to a number of flammable gases, especially methane. It is particularly commonly found in areas where the coal is bituminous...
ripped through the workings. It remains the worst colliery disaster in England, and the second worst mining accident
Mining accident
A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals.Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially in the processes of coal mining and hard rock mining...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Background
The Oaks Colliery, which was one of the largest coal mines working the Barnsley area in South Yorkshire CoalfieldSouth Yorkshire Coalfield
The South Yorkshire Coalfield is defined by a triangle lying between Barnsley, Doncaster and Sheffield, though a few mines within the coalfield lie outside this area. It is part of the larger Midland coal field which stretches from Nottingham in the south to Bradford and Leeds in the north...
, mined a seam that was notorious for firedamp
Firedamp
Firedamp is a flammable gas found in coal mines. It is the name given to a number of flammable gases, especially methane. It is particularly commonly found in areas where the coal is bituminous...
. Almost 20 years before, on 5 March 1847, The Oaks colliery suffered its first disaster when a blast killed 73 men and boys. As mine management was aware of firedamp, there were strict rules about the use of safety lamps. A ventilation system was also used to carry out of the mine any gas that emerged from the seam. However, the coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
in this seam was known to contain methane
Methane
Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...
making it a very dangerous working environment.
Explosion
On Wednesday 12 December 1866, 340 men and boys were working the day shift. With less than an hour of the shift remaining, a huge explosion ripped through the workings, the force of the blast blowing the cageCage
Cage may refer to:* Cage , a structure made of mesh, bars or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something. Examples include:** Batting cage, an enclosure for baseball players to practice batting...
up No.1 shaft into the headgear and breaking the coupling. The cage was recovered and replaced to enable a party of "pit deputies" (foreman) to descend the pit to see the devastation. At the botton of the shaft, they found a number of badly burned men who were sent up to the surface. The dead were taken to their homes and the survivors were given medical attention. By midnight the exhausted rescuers had withdrawn, to resume their work the next day.
27 rescuers went down the pit the next morning, with Mr Minto, the underviewer and mining engineer, Parkin Jeffcock
Parkin Jeffcock
Parkin Jeffcock , was a mining engineer who died trying to effect the rescue of miners during the Oaks mining disaster which eventually took over 350 lives.-Biography:...
, a mining engineer to inspect the conditions under which they were working. But as Jeffcock finished inspecting the upcast shaft, another huge explosion occurred killing all the rescuers. The blast was powerful enough to rush up all three shafts at the colliery. A third explosion took place a few hours later, again affecting all three shafts.
In total the explosions killed 361 miners and 27 rescuers. Among the many dead were the pit ponies and their boy handlers, who hauled wagon loads of coal from the workings to the mine shaft. They had all been killed in the first explosion.
Cause
A thorough investigation into the disaster could not conclusively ascertain what had caused the explosion or what was the source of the first ignition. But some survivors mentioned an exceptionally violent blast just before the main explosion. This may have been caused by the driving of a drift near the main seam, meaning the digging of a new workings may have ignited pockets of firedamp. An initial blast may have caused a chain reaction triggering the firedamp and coal dustCoal dust
Coal dust is a fine powdered form of coal, which is created by the crushing, grinding, or pulverizing of coal. Because of the brittle nature of coal, coal dust can be created during mining, transportation, or by mechanically handling coal.-Explosions:...
explosion that devastated the rest of the pit.
Although the cause was never properly discovered, a further 17 explosions had been recorded in the Oak Colliery when it closed in the 1960s.
Legacy
It was not until 1913 that a memorial was erected to Parkin Jeffcock and the others who died.The accident remained the worst in British mining history until the Senghenydd Colliery Disaster
Senghenydd Colliery Disaster
The Senghenydd Colliery Disaster, also known as the Senghenydd Explosion, occurred in Senghenydd , near Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales on 14 October 1913, killing 439 miners...
, in the South Wales coalfield
South Wales Coalfield
The South Wales Coalfield is a large region of south Wales that is rich with coal deposits, especially the South Wales Valleys.-The coalfield area:...
in 1913, which claimed over 400 lives. The Oaks disaster remains the worst in an English coalfield.