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Berry Hill Explosion 1871
Researched by John Lumsdon
“To the Editor of the Potteries Examiner”
Sir, I desire to ask through your paper, a few questions in regard to the above explosion. First, how is it that so little notice has been taken of the sad affair by the local press? I know that we may expect that the Examiner will pay more attention to matters of such importance to working miners, now it is starting on its own basis, and employing its own reporters. The paper that has briefly noticed the accident has made several mistakes which I should like to correct. The Staffordshire Advertiser of May 27th says:-
A serious explosion of gas occurred at Mr Bowers’ colliery, Berry Hill, on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in the death of a man and a boy and the serious injury of three other men. While the men were working in the pit, William Forrester, a waggoner, 16 years old, took a lighted candle into a dip, and the explosion resulted there from. Forrester was seriously burnt and died from his injuries on Thursday. The horse which he was driving was killed. The dead body of Henry Pickering, age 30, was found an hour and a half after the explosion, death having been produced by suffocation. John Crookes, David Evans, and Henry Obery were seriously injured.
The question arises, who has informed the writer of the above that William Forrester took a lighted candle into the dip? Forrester was a horse driver in the wagon road, and he was found under his horse. How can he have taken a lighted candle into the dip? Especially when, as I am informed by all that I have spoken to who know the pit, and have worked in it, that there is no dip in it at all. It is very easy to lay the blame on a man that is killed, and who is therefore unable to contradict what is said against him, and it is not the first time that such a thing has been done.
Though I know that some colliers’ are often too careless and fool-hardy, yet I am sure that they are many times charged with causing an accident, when the real blame lies at the door of the mine owners, their managers, or their butties. Has Mr. Wynne, the Government Inspector of Mines, made any inquiries into the cause of the explosion? If not, why? I have heard it stated that the “down-cast” was full of gas within 10 yards of the top. If that was true there must have been some thousands of yards of gas ready to be turned upon the naked lights that were being used in the “up-cast.” I shall watch with interest the result of the adjourned inquiry. Yours truly, bar the Miner.
Are Miners’ Lives of any Value?
Saturday July 8th 1871
The Berry Hill explosion ought not to be passed by without comment upon the carelessness that has resulted in the death of two human beings. Though the victims are beyond help, it may be that a fair and impartial statement of the whole case will not be without its effect in preventing similar negligence and therefore, similar disastrous results. The general facts of the accident may be gleaned from the report we published on June 17th and from the account of the final inquiry enquiry to be found in another column. Anyone who intelligently and impartially considers the evidence reported will read the stereotyped verdict of the “accidental death” with astonishment, not unmixed with indignation. What are the facts clearly brought out in evidence?
That a man and boy were both deprived of their lives by an explosion of gas at Berry Hill pit. The gas which exploded was known to have accumulated in the pit in large quantities the day before and on the morning of the explosion, so much so that a number of men left the pit before 12 o’ clock that morning through the dangerous state of the mine. The engineer of the mine, Mr. R.S. Wynne, son of the Government Inspector for the district and Wooliscroft, the underground bailiff, found a large quantity of gas on the morning of the explosion; and at half-past one o’ clock the time the accident, the men were allowed to work with naked lights in the pit; and it was said that lamps were only used when they thought it dangerous, which would not be often, according to Mr. Evans, Inspector of Mines for the Midland district, as under-viewers, in his opinion, never acted from thought, but from results. Though they knew of these large quantities of gas, yet naked lights were still used, and the gas ignited at the exposed candle of the boy Forrester
While the existence of gas was thus known, the underground manager, when asked by Evans what he thought of doing to remove the gas, said he did not think of doing anything, thus giving a striking illustration of the truth of Mr. Evan’s word that under-viewers were never moved by thought, it being a thing unused by them in seeking to prevent accidents.
It is absolutely a fact, according to the evidence given, that though men though their lives in danger and left working in consequence, nothing whatever was done to prevent the catastrophe that the managers were so significantly warned was impending, and the man in whose hands the practical management of the pit was left did not seem to understand that increased ventilation was imperatively needed. The enlarging of the air-way, the letting in of greater quantities of fresh air, was undreamed of, and all that was ever thought of or done was to send a man in the crut, to make it “a little larger.” Was that not trifling with precious lives?
As Mr. Evans said at the inquest on Wednesday, when there was gas in sufficient quantities, which might explode and do harm in the pit, unceasing precautions should be taken until it was rendered in noxious, by being neutralised with fresh air; and while there was danger, no one should be allowed to go on working in any part of the pit. If that principle was carried out, very soon the 10.000 miners that are sacrificed every 10 years, on the alter of carelessness, ignorance and greed would be greatly reduced.
The real cause of the accident was generally allowed to be the reversion of the ventilation of currents of air which drove the gas from that part of the workings where it was known to have accumulated, to another part, where no traces, at least in large quantities had been observed before the accident. It will be seen from the evidence that the accident occurred in what was called the new sinking. In his evidence on this point said that this shaft ought always to have been a down-cast, as it was the shortest connection between that shaft and the up-cast, but the furnace power was so weak it became the up-cast from the beginning; and then he explained how by a sudden power of disturbance of the atmosphere, or by a brisker action of the furnace, the shaft would be restored to the action that it was most suited for, and the reversion of the air would be caused i.e. a current of air would rush down the new shaft and drive the gas that was in the new sinking into the workings where the explosion happened.
Without claiming any practical knowledge of ourselves of mining operations we submit that from the explanation given by Mr. Evans the chances of the reversion of air ought to have been foreseen and provided against, either more ventilation, by the increase of furnace power, or by blocking up the connection between the two workings, sealing them off, which would, according to the admission of the managers, have been an effectual preventative.
The law regulating mines is clear on the point that where gas exists in dangerous quantities, it should be prevented from doing harm by the common sense means of turning upon its greatest foe and the miners’ greatest friend -fresh air;
And as Mr. Evans said to the responsible manager of the colliery, Mr. Wynne, when the later was talking of the difficulty of anticipating such an unlikely occurrence as the reversing of the air, if the law had been followed out to the letter and the gas that was known to exist had been diluted by means of adequate ventilation, it would not have mattered whether the air had been reversed or not, as it could not have driven the gas upon naked lights, because no gas would have existed. We submit, therefore, that the great issue of the inquest should have been, has the ventilation of the mine been properly attended to? The evidence of all the witnesses proves that in this respect the law had been fragrantly set at nought.
Mr. Wynne admitted the presence of gas, but did not prove that any adequate means had been taken to increase the ventilation. He said that if they had given more air to the new working that there would not have been sufficient for the other parts of the pit, to which Mr. Evans very properly observed that, that only proved that all together the pit was not sufficiently ventilated. It is to such management as this that the lives of poor men are trusted. A little care, a little forethought, and a little expenditure of money would have saved two lives, money or lives? Which is most valuable?
When the lives are those of beasts of burden money and lives are convertible terms, but when the lives are human, they are in truth practically as little as the waste on the pit bank. A thousand miners are destroyed each year, and another thousand children are taken to be trained to fill the gaps, but a thousand horses have to be bought with the coin with so much sin is frequently committed to obtain. When a poor miner is slain, a jury may be tempted to think, when they are inquiring into the causes of death, that severity of those who may have been the direct or indirect cause cannot benefit the dead, but justice and the safety of the living demand that punishment equal o the guilt should be awarded.
It has become so common for miners to be killed, that it is looked upon as a mere matter of course, and this feeling pervades in the House of Parliament, where the capitalists predominate, and show that they consider human life as less moment than any petty matter that effects their pockets or vested interests by the way they are acting with regards to the Mines’ Regulation Bill. The miner, for his miserable, starving pay, daily risks his life, which is the sole wealth of his family, but the only risk of the mine-owner, who makes his fortune out of the mine, is confined to his pocket. There will never be adequate protection of the lives of the miners until the colliery proprietors and managers of every degree are made to feel that carelessness and mismanagement that results in the death of other men will be punished with punishment.
In regard to the Berry Hill explosion we strongly advise the miners association to take up the cause of the widow, Mrs. Pickering, still further, and strive to obtain some compensation for the irreparable damage she and her children have sustained, and in that cause the verdict of the jury will assist them, as they were of the opinion that sufficient care in the ventilation of the pit had not been taken. The Amalgamated Association ought to take such a case as this in hand, as by gaining a victory for one widow; they may prevent many wives from being placed in the same position.