3-011-720 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The explosion on Wednesday week at Edmund's Main Colliery, Barnsley, 1862. 'Instantly a dense column of black smoke sprang from the cupola, like a gigantic tower, towards heaven. Its height is estimated at more than 100ft., and it remained for a few moments as clearly and sharply defined as the steeple of a church. The explosion was so violent that it not only forced back the current of air which was descending the downcast-shafts, but vomited from them also an immense volume of smoke, carried on a blast which hurled away the planks placed across the mouth of the shaft, snapping some of them in two like laths and tossing the others against the head of the gearing, whence they fell to the bottom of the shaft...In a few minutes the current resumed its natural course down the downcast-shafts; but the cupola continued to emit thick volumes of smoke until evening. The explosion is described by experienced persons as one of the most violent that had ever occurred in the mining districts of the North. In consequence of the explosion it has been determined to partially fill up the cupola-shaft, seal the mouths of the other two shafts, and flood the entire pit with water. The recovery of the bodies is delayed for months, but no more lives are lost'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.