Durham Mining Museum - George Whips (original) (raw)

An awful explosion of gas took place at Burradon Colliery this afternoon, by which the large number of seventy six men and boys met with an untimely end. Immediately on the alarm being given instant steps were taken by those in authority to lessen, as far as possible, the effects of choke damp. Mr. Kirkley, the fore-overman, descended the mine with a view to rescue those who might have escaped with their lives, in which praiseworthy and humane effort he was happily successful, as several of the workmen and boys engaged on the Seghill division were brought to the surface alive, and, after the usual restoratives were applied, recovered from the effects of the choke damp. Burradon Colliery, the scene of the calamity, is the property of Joshua Bower, esq., of Hunslet, near Leeds, who had only recently purchased it. A long and searching inquiry took place as to the cause of the accident, but without any satisfactory result.

• The Miners of Northumberland and Durham by Richard Fynes, first published in 1873

• Northumberland & Cumberland Mining Disasters by Maureen Anderson, Published by Wharncliffe Books, 2009, ISBN 1-845630-81-5

• Contributions by members of the Public

• Local Records or Historical Register of Remarkable Events by T. Fordyce, published in 1867

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