Then and Now Stargate Pit The Stargate Pit Explosion of 1826 by G. Nicholson Introduction Coal mining is a dangerous occupation. As long as there have been coal miners, they have been exposed to danger from roof falls, flooding, explosions and other causes. The old Parish of Ryton was a coal mining area from at least 1367, when coal from Winlaton was shipped to London to be used at lime works in connection with building operations on Windsor Castle. Mining operations in Ryton Manor itself probably date from 1409, when the Bishop of Durham leased the mineral rights to John Carnis and William Tyndale. Nevertheless the records of the Parish are relatively free of the stories of major disasters such as occurred in nearby parishes with increasing frequency as advancing industrialisation steadily increased the scale of mining operations; for example, the explosion at Felling in 1812 when 92 died. Minor accidents however, would be a frequent occurrence, most of them being regarded as too trivial to be worth recording if they only involved one or two pitmen, who were often regarded by the establishment of the day as expendable material in any case. One interesting exception is recorded on a headstone in Ryton churchyard (recently seen lying loose and broken against the church wall, west of the porch) to John, son of William Sherbourn, who, in 1717, Fell down a shaft by the breaking of a chain. Above the inscription is a graphic carving of three bodies lying in a heap — perhaps intended to ensure the message was clear even to those who could not read. Such memorials are rare, however; at a time when most miners barely earned enough money to keep themselves and their families, money spent on gravestones would seem a wild extravagance. The one major mining disaster in the Ryton area, The Stargate Pit explosion of 1826, must therefore be seen as an exceptional event for the immediate area but as the sort of occurrence to which the coal-field as a whole had become hardened through years of bitter experience. Stargate Pit before 1826 The ownership of Stargate was a complicated matter, typical of the complexities which had resulted all over Tyneside where coal ownership had been a lucrative business for hundreds of years. The land surface was nominally part of the Bishop of Durhams Manor of Ryton, from which it was held by Copyhold Tenure by the Towneley family of Burnley, Lancashire, who had inherited their Copyhold from the Tempests of Stella. Although Towneleys rights extended to the surface only, they could effectively control the pit by virtue of their wayleave, or right to charge the coal owners for transporting coal over their land. This was particularly important in the case of Stargate as the only practical shipping point on the Tyne for Stargate coal was at Stella, on which all the local wagonways had converged for over a hundred years before 1800. The whole township of Stella belonged to the Towneleys, again by inheritance from the Tempests, but this time as freehold land. The mineral rights of Ryton Manor had been leased by the Bishop many years before to a consortium of local coal owners. This lease was known as the Stella Grand Lease, although it covered only the Bishops Manor of Ryton, the significance of the name Stella being again that it was the shipping point to which the coals had to be taken. In the late 18th century a controlling interest of 62% in the Stella Grand Lease had been acquired by the Silvertop family of Minsteracres and, in the case of Stargate, George Silvertop leased the working of the coal to George T. Dunn & Sons of Newcastle (a ¾ share) and Matthias Dunn, tenant of Stella Hall (a ¼ share). Because of the complexity of ownerships the Pit was sometimes referred to as the Stella Grand Lease Colliery (although this was, strictly speaking, incorrect, as there were other Pits in the Grand Lease at Greenside and the Folly sometimes as the Towneley Main (a term later used for a while of Emma Pit, when it was first sunk in 1844) and sometimes as Dunns Stargate Pit, the latter being probably the most correct term. Stargate Pit was named after the small farm of Star Gate, the site of which became buried under the waste heap which eventually spread out from the later Stargate Pit. This farm, also on the Tempest/Towneley estate, had existed in Tudor times, when it is mentioned as Sty Gait in the Ryton Parish Registers. Both farm and Pit were close to, although not actually on, the road from Ryton to Winlaton. As these were the two oldest centres in the Parish and as Gate is an old word for road, it is reasonable to assume that this road is the Sty or Staw road referred to, although the significance of the first element of the name has not been determined. Certainly Bournes story of retreating English soldiers after the Battle of Newburn reaching there in a stawed state can be dismissed as romantic guesswork. Sinking the shaft at Stargate began in 1800 and by 16th June 1803 the Brockwell seam, the lowest in the coal field, had been reached at a depth of 83 fathoms (152 metres). A considerable amount of money must have been invested in the pit; above ground the wagonway link to Stella Staiths would be created, probably using refurbished lengths of pre-existing routes, horse-drawn wagons were provided to carry the coal down the wooden wagonway and, at the pit-head, a steam engine was installed to haul coals and men up the shaft. Shaft haulage at the time was a primitive affair, the coal being placed in wicker baskets, called cones, which at Stargate held 16 pecks (0.145 cubic metres).These corves were attached to loops in a rope which hung down the shaft and which were wound up and down by action of the steam engine. Men would ride down in much the same way, sitting either in the corves or simply with their legs slung through the loops, hanging on to the rope as best they could. In the pit itself horses or ponies were used to pull trolleys loaded with corves, except in one place, where Stargate Pit boasted the first self-acting plane to be used underground. Self-acting planes, an arrangement whereby a set of loaded coal wagons going down an incline could be used to pull an empty set back up, were only just beginning to be applied to wagonways on the surface. That Stargate had the first underground one is indicative of how advanced a mine it was for its day and of how much Dunns had invested in it. By using the self-acting plane it was possible, with two or three men and about 800 yards of rope, to dispense with the employment of 30 ponies. Once operations commenced a workforce would be found, drawn in from the surrounding area and no doubt including a mixture of experienced miners looking for better working conditions, or better money, and former farm labourers attracted from the land by what was regarded as a better, more highly paid, job. As far as accommodation was concerned however, this workforce would have to fend for itself. No houses appear to have been built specially for the miners (Stargate Pit village was not built until 1871) though every cottage in the area, no matter what its condition, would be fully tenanted and farmers with large houses or with spare buildings were encouraged to take in mining families. Ryton Parish Baptism Registers have many entries for the early 1800s, referring to children of miners with addresses hitherto solely occupied by farmers and their labourers. The most important employee was the Viewer, a man who today would have the title of Colliery Manager. This was James Hall, a man who had been made Viewer of the Grand Lease A Pit a few years earlier when he had gone underground to effect a dangerous rescue after the Under-Viewer, a man named Newton had declined to do so. By 1800 Hall was Viewer of all the Grand Lease Pits — the A or Preaching House Pit and the B Pit at Greenside, the C Pit at the Folly and now the new Stargate Pit. Obviously Hall could not be everywhere at once and as soon as Stargate Pit was running smoothly he seems to have made his headquarters at Greenside and relied on reports from his Under-viewer coupled with the occasional personal inspection, to keep himself informed of what was going on. James Halls career has been largely overshadowed by that of his more famous son, Thomas Young Hall (1802-1870) whose innovations while Viewer of Woodside Glebe Pit were to include the modern system of cages hauled by wire ropes and extensive use of underground railway systems. A picture of Stargate Pit and its workforce can be gleaned from a return made in 1815 of the numbers of people employed in all the collieries on the River Tyne. At Towneley Pit 280 persons were employed underground and 150 on the surface. Although this return specifies Towneley it is probable that all the Stella Grand Lease Pits were included, together with wagonways and staith employees. A total of 150 families were involved, so there were on average about three members of each mining family employed at the pit. It must be remembered that children were employed from the age of about six in most pits in the Durham coalfield so many of the employees would be no more than boys. (The youngest victims of the 1826 explosion were in fact, ten years old).The underground workers had earned an average of £69 each in the year 1814 and the surface workers averaged £37 giving average weekly wages of 13s. 2d. and 9s. 6d respectively. These averages, however, especially that for underground workers, should be regarded with suspicion, as there would be a large difference between the earnings of, say, a very young trap boy and a hewer at the coal face. Over a four year period there had been two fatal accidents and three people had been injured seriously enough to be paid Smart Money. Before the year was out, however, there was to be another fatality and, whatever the cause of the earlier deaths, this one, on 18th December 1815, is known to have been the result of an explosion. No doubt it was only a small pocket of gas which was involved, but it was an ominous portend of disaster to come. Stargate Pit must in general have settled down within a short time of its opening to be a fairly typical medium sized pit of its day. That it was profitable for its owners there can be no doubt. When the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 brought with it the inevitable post-war depression among armament related industries, hardship was felt in many parts of Tyneside and particularly in Winlaton, where the long established Iron Works was a casualty of the stoppage of Admiralty orders. Not only did Dunns ride out the storm unscathed but they were in a position to distribute five keel-loads of free coal in 1816 to the poor of Newcastle, the widows of Ryton and the unemployed iron workers of Winlaton. In July 1818 Stargate made the local newspapers as a result of a particularly nasty burglary which must have provided a talking point for many weeks among the local mining families. Thomas Snowdon of Stargate and his wife Jane had gone to visit friends at Greenside and, as the Hoppings or local fair was being held there, they stayed late and did not return to Stargate until around midnight, To their consternation they found their home had been burgled and they had lost all their clothes and bedding and, what must have been their most valuable possessions, some silver spoons. The worst aspect of the affair was that, to get past Snowdons dog, the intruders had stoned it to death, leaving the room strewn with stones. Eventually a man named Parker was arrested and pleaded guilty at Durham Assizes, for which he was sentenced to death, though it seems unlikely that he was actually executed. We will meet Thomas Snowden again later in our story. In 1825, on 5th January, one of the original shareholders in Stargate Pit died. This was Matthias Dunn, a distinguished local mining engineer and colliery viewer, who had made his home at Stella Hall. The colliery had made a handsome fortune for Dunn during its twenty-two years of operation and no doubt, as a near neighbour, he would have kept a close personal eye on the activities there where his experience would have helped the pit to run smoothly and safely. It is even possible that the absence of Dunns experienced, interested involvement during the year or so between his death and the explosion may have been a contributory cause of the disaster of 1826, although James Hall remained as Viewer of all the Stella Grand Lease Pits throughout this period. One consequence of Dunns death which would probably not have been apparent to the ordinary miners, but which was to have serious long term implications for all the Stella Grand Lease Pits was that a dispute arose among his family as to who was the rightful heir to Matthias ¼ share in the concern. According to his Will, Matthias wanted his nephew Matthew William Dunn of Hedgefield House to have it. This dispute was still causing bitterness at the time of the explosion and was not resolved for many years afterwards. Between two and three oclock in the morning of Tuesday 30th May 1826 chinks of light could be seen in the windows of the cottages in the Stargate area as the miners stirred, lit their candles and prepared for an early shift at the pit. Some would prepare themselves carefully and quietly So as not to waken other members of the family who were not needed in the pit until later in the day. Others would be anxious to ensure that brothers, sons and fathers were also awake and about, as family groups often worked together, boys in particular often worked on the same shifts as their fathers, albeit at different jobs. Perhaps a father who was a hewer would be taking a young son in to work as a trap boy or an older son to be a putter. Whatever their precise jobs, all would have to get up at that unearthly hour, ready for a three oclock start. On this particular morning there would be many w ho would find it more difficult than usual to rise from their beds. The pit had not worked since the previous Friday and the miners muscles had had three days in which to relax and soften. As there was no pit village as such at this time, it was unlikely that the miners would have had the services of a knocker-up as was often the case later in the nineteenth century. Will-power and the fear of missing a shifts pay would alone have had to drive the men on, Not everything connected with the pit had been idle over the weekend however, for the furnace which induced the draught through the workings would have been tended regardless of whether or not the pit was actually being worked. Every man knew that parts of the pit were fiery, that is the working of coal caused Methane Gas, or Firedamp, to be produced and that, if this was allowed to collect and then come into contact with a naked flame, an explosion could occur Such an incident, in the confined space a coal mine, would have devastating effects. The key to safety was recognised as being good ventilation and to this end the furnace was kept burning day and night inducing a draught of fresh air down one side of the shaft and then in a zig-zag course through all the workings, emerging up the other side of the same shaft. The vertical division of the shaft into two sections was effected by a wooden partition and other partitions in the workings served to ensure the air travelled to every part of the pit. These partitions were called brattices and, wherever it was necessary for miners on their way to or from their working places, or for putters with their ponies to pass through them a trap door was provided, worked by a trap boy who was usually one of the youngest employees of the pit, often only six years old. Great pains had always been taken at Stargate with the ventilation and, in spite of occasional incidents such as the fatal explosion of 1815, there seems to have been a sense of security around a false sense as events were to prove. Davy lamps had been used in the pit in the past and it was generally recognised throughout the coalfield that a Davy, or some thing similar, such as a Geordy lamp, was essential for working gassy seams. Nevertheless the recent practice in Stargate had been to trust the ventilation and use nothing more complicated than the simple candle. Candles, which the miners would have to provide themselves, out of their wages, had proved reasonably safe in the past and no-one expected any trouble that morning. James Hall, the viewer, certainly did not expect trouble. True, he had not actually been in the pit himself for about a fortnight, but he had daily reports from his under-viewers. These had left him satisfied that the pit was in excellent condition and uncommonly well ventilated. As long as the furnace was kept burning the ventilation of the pit would be adequate. Everyone knew that, and everyone also knew that the furnace had been burning ever since Friday, so there was nothing to worry about. No-one apparently gave a thought to what might happen if a fall of stone in some remote part of the old workings were to block an airway and allow gas to accumulate. No-one gave a thought to it but that, or something similar, is what must have happened and some fifty men and boys were now carrying naked candle flames into an explosive mixture of Methane and Air. Because of the way the miners rode the rope down the shaft, they would arrive at the shaft bottom one at a time. It would be thus singly, or at most in small groups, that they would make their way into the Brockwell seam workings east of the shaft. Although it is recorded that the workings were east of the shaft, they could not have extended very far in that direction as the boundary of the Stella Freehold Estate — outside the Grand Lease — would soon have been reached. In a south-easterly direction the ninety fathom dyke, a major geological barrier, would have rendered any extensive working impractical, but to the north-east there was plenty of untouched Grand Lease coal and that is probably where the workings were. The long line of men stretched right through the Brockwell seam workings, such that, as the first men drew near to their workplaces amongst the bord and pillar workings then used, the last were still riding the rope down the shaft. It was three oclock. That was when the explosion happened, when everyone was in either the main tunnels or the shaft, and hardly anyone had any shelter to deflect the blast. That blast swept back effortlessly through the workings, tossing aside and burning brattices, men, boys, ponies and all else that lay in its way. As it focussed on the shaft it raced up, carrying with it more brattices, ropes, corves and men, finally erupting out of the mouth of the pit with a mighty roar which told the local inhabitants only too clearly what had happened. Behind it the explosion left chaos. Everything which could be torn loose had been blown about and burned, In several places the roof had collapsed and the bodies of men, boys and horses were everywhere. Of the fifty or so miners that had descended to work, over thirty were dead, about a dozen were injured most of them seriously, and only four or five remained unharmed. For the survivors there was another danger to be faced; apart from the prospect of being buried alive by roof falls there was the after-damp, deadly choking gases which follow an explosion and can quietly kill any man unlucky enough to be caught up in them. No doubt local people, woken by the noise, would soon rush to the shaft top to find out what had happened and to see whether anything could be done to help. It must have been a terrible scene which greeted them. Corves full of coals which had been waiting at the shaft bottom since Friday had been blown right up the shaft and with them had come broken brattices, ropes and some dead ponies. Three men and a boy, who had been in the act of descending the shaft at the time of the explosion, were also blown right out of it, as was one man, John Grey, who had actually reached the bottom. Grey and two others, Thomas Stokoe and his 15 year old son Matthew, were killed outright, but, miraculously the other two, although injured, were expected to recover. The scene at the shaft top was described in the diary of a Winlaton man, in the flowery style of the day: This was such a sight as was never seen in the neighbourhood, the clouds as it were, stood still, the very earth was said to wonder to hear the cries of the people Rescue work would begin immediately and we can be sure that there would be no shortage of experienced miners volunteering to help. It soon became apparent, however that there were precious few alive to be rescued amid the underground chaos which once was Stargate Pit. The job quickly resolved itself into one of bringing out the bodies, a job which was seriously hampered by roof falls. Slow but steady progress was made throughout the Tuesday and Wednesday and on the Thursday, June 1st, twenty-seven of the victims were buried in Ryton Churchyard. A further six burials took place on Friday 2nd June and four more on Saturday 3rd June, a total of thirty-seven miners (nineteen men and eighteen boys). As it was stated on the Monday evening, 5th June, that thirty-eight had died, it seems likely that by then Matthew Newton, a 41 year old man who had survived the explosion but had been badly injured, had also died, Matthew Newton was buried at Ryton on Wednesday 7th June. Only two of the victims are commemorated today on a gravestone in Ryton Churchyard. These are John and Thomas Robson, two brothers whose names appear in their family gravestone, to the north of the main path, The other thirty-six victims all have unmarked graves.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 08:38:59 +0000
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