Local History: The Gosforth Pit Disaster

Situated between Middleton and Belle Isle is a large hill at the base of which the Gosforth Colliery was situated. A tunnel had been driven under the hill, originally 1400 yards long before the steam engine was installed, then a vertical shaft of 80 yards deep then another 700 yards to the accident site, and large enough to admit a horse and waggon.

At the end of the tunnel there was the large steam engine, this steam engine was underground and was equipped with its own engine house, boiler, and firing place. Near this engine had been sunk a shaft 80 yards deep up which the engine drew the coal.

This pit was on the Brandling’s Middleton Estate and was named after his estate in the north east. The Agent at the time was John Blenkinsop, the first person to successfully run a commercially viable steam railway at Middleton and at the time of the disaster he had been in post for 16 years.

What the account does not say is how deep the original tunnel was from the surface or in which precise direction they were headed. Logic would seem to indicate they headed south, and in that direction as the crow flies Thorpe Lane is situated about one mile away.

With the Dayhole mining was being carried out under the plateau south of the park which puts workings under Town Street etc. The day hole was driven from the outcrop of the 40 yard seam, south of Broom Pit, and down at an angle of 1in 40 into the Gosforth Pit.

This probably means the Gosforth was already opened and running but by what access method it is not sure, prior to the “Dayhole”.

On Wednesday 12 January 1825 Gosforth Pit became the scene of the worst disaster to occur at Middleton Pits when a miner removed the top of his safety lamp to light his pipe and caused an explosion of firedamp on the north side of the passage. At the time of the explosion some 40 people were working there in between six and seven o’clock in the evening with about 10 working on the west side of the shaft and the remainder working on the east side some 200 yards from the shaft.

Several of the colliers who were nearest the explosion were scorched and destroyed on the spot while most of the hurriers and thrusters running for refuge into the principle passage were killed by splinters that were torn from the sides and the roof or by being dashed to the earth by the tremendous blast that issued that issued from the cavern.

While five colliers who were working on the southern division of the pit were suffocated one collier who was working within a few yards of the explosion took place miraculously escaped by running into the northern passage and a collier working in the very farthest part of the pit also escaped by the same means though he was twice thrown down by the force of the explosion.

So great was the shock of the explosion that four men standing at the mouth of the pit were thrown down by the blast of air that came from the shaft. The men who were working at the western side of the shaft were also thrown down by the blast but they all escaped with no major injury.

The “bottom steward”, Moses Roberts was immediately sent for and he descended into a pit full of smoke and he quickly took action to produce a current of air to clear away the smoke and allow the passages to be checked. After this, at the risk of suffocation as well as another explosion, several men entered the passages and by five o’clock the following morning had found and taken out twenty-two dead bodies besides several who were very bruised and maimed.

On the Thursday morning following the explosion the smoke became so thick that it became impossible for any further attempts of rescue to be made because of the danger of more casualties so it was assumed that the two missing men’s bodies that had not been found in the last search must be presumed dead. The search was abandoned and the entrance to the pit was sealed up for five weeks in order to deprive the fire of its oxygen supply.

Two Inquests were held. One at the Brandling Arms, Belle Isle, on some of the deceased killed by the explosion: John Proctor (aged 60) wife and three children; James Wood (23), his wife was brought to bed yesterday; Benjamin Wood, Jr (13); Benjamin Wood, Sr (43), father of the two former; wife and three children; Joshua Liversedge (43), wife and ten children; Samuel Ramsden (12); Calita Ramsden (14); John Ramsden (20); William Heald (18); William Wood (36), wife and child; Joseph Dixon (8); Sanderson Handford this young man would have completed his 18th year to-morrow; Samuel Cromack (10); Benjamin Broadhead (40), wife and one child; George Wright (27), wife and three children; Luke Normington (27), wife and two children; James Drury (18); Richard Foster (5) this poor little fellow was taken out alive in a mangled state, and expired at three o clock this morning; James Heald (14); George Ambler (8); Peter Hamel (33), wife; James Foster (8); Joseph Haigh (40), wife and child, and John Ramsden (23), are yet in the pit, and supposed to be dead. George Ambler (8) both his thighs broke; John Liversedge (20), much burnt, Samuel Hewitt (16), skull fractured; and George Hewitt (23), much bruised; were taken to the Infirmary about two o’clock this morning, and there are some hopes entertained of their recovery.

James Wood had worked at Gosforth until two-thirty on the afternoon of that fatal day and stated that the pit was all right and all the air gates were in a proper state when he left. He was relieved by Benjamin Wood who was employed on the second bank, on the south side of the centre board gate. Safety lamps were provided for all the colliers and others employed in the pit and instructions were given that the tops of the lamps should not be taken off under any consideration whatever.

After all the evidence had been heard and the Coroner had summed up the jury retired for only a few minutes before returning and giving the verdict of “Accidental death, occasioned by the sudden explosion of a quantity of hydrogen gas, commonly known as fire damp in Gosforth Coal Pit”.

The second Inquest was held at the Locomotive Steam Engine in Hunslet Carr on the body of one Richard Foster who lived in Hunslet Carr and was married with three children and had worked in the pits at Middleton since he was a boy. Witnesses believed that the accident must have arisen from neglect of some man and the verdict was once again death by an explosion of fire damp.

Unfortunately there is no record of where all the deceased are buried but we do know that twenty-five men and boys were killed in the explosion and their ages ranged from a seven year old thruster named John Ambler to forty-eight year old John Proctor a collier.

This disaster left eight widows and a total of twenty-six children without a father and William Woods’s wife was also pregnant at the time. The effect on the village of Middleton must have been tremendous as well as shocking.
Two hundred years later, on Sunday 12 January 2025, a Memorial Remembrance Service will be held at St Mary’s Parish Church, Town Street, Middleton at 2pm.

I would like to thank Friends of Middleton Park for allowing me access to some of this information.

Main photos: a young lad working to support the family; and orphaned children who faced destitution