Hester Pit at New Hartley, on the Northumberland coast, had one shaft. Men, coal, ponies, pumps and air all went up and down the same twelve-foot hole. On a January morning in 1862 the machinery above it failed, and the hole closed.
The Horror
Hartley was a wet pit, kept dry by a great pumping engine whose cast-iron beam rocked over the mouth of the shaft. At about half past ten on Thursday 16 January 1862 the beam broke. A heavy section fell down the shaft, tearing out the timber lining and the wooden brattice that directed the air, and struck the cage. Eight men were ascending. One account has five killed and three saved. Another account of the cage says two of its four support chains snapped. The shaft below was choked with wreckage, and the shift change meant that the men of the fore-shift and back-shift were mostly underground.
Sinkers, the men who dug shafts, came from pits along the coast and worked in relays to clear the debris. William Coulson took charge late on Friday. They were hampered by gas, falling stone and cold. About a week passed before they reached the workings. They found 199 bodies in the Yard Seam, with five more having died in the shaft, making 204. The men are believed to have died from carbon monoxide and other foul air, because the furnace that drew air through the pit kept burning while the shaft was blocked. Accounts of the scene describe most of them as having died placidly, and one writer reported a father found clasping his son. Some of the boys on the memorial were ten years old.
The last entry in a back overman’s notebook records a prayer meeting at a quarter to two on the Friday afternoon. Stories that the trapped men scratched farewell messages into tin water bottles are unconfirmed.
Most of the dead were buried on the Sunday after recovery, in rows at St Alban’s, Earsdon, on extra land given by the Duke of Northumberland, with many thousands attending. Others were buried at Cowpen, Seghill and Cramlington. A relief fund eventually reached £83,000. Later estimates counted 467 dependants, including 26 children born after their fathers died.
The Modern Relic
The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death on 6 February 1862, and the jury urged that all working collieries should have at least a second shaft or outlet. Parliament passed the Coal Mines Act on 7 August 1862. It required every new mine to have two shafts, and gave existing mines until the end of 1864 to provide a second means of access.
Hester Pit never reopened. The Hartley colliery was abandoned in 1959. On the site in New Hartley, a memorial garden opened on 18 January 1976, and in 2012 a path was laid showing the names and ages of all 204 victims. In the churchyard at Earsdon an obelisk carries their names.
