West Stanley Pit disasters (original) (raw)

The West Stanley Pit disasters refers to two explosions at the West Stanley colliery (variously known as West Stanley pit or Burns pit). West Stanley colliery was a coal mine near Stanley, with the mine opening in 1832 and closing in 1936. Over the years several seams were worked through four shafts: Kettledrum pit, Lamp pit, Mary pit and New pit. In 1882 an underground explosion killed 13 men and in 1909 another explosion killed 168 men.