Pretoria Pit Disaster 1910

Today marks the 102^nd anniversary of Britain’s third worst mining disaster, which took place on 21^st December 1910 in the parish of Westhoughton, around five miles from Bolton, Lancashire.

Four days before Christmas, on Wednesday 21^st December 1910, 889 miners arrived for work at the No. 3 and 4 Bank Pit of the Hulton Colliery Company in Westhoughton. Known as the Pretoria Pit, the mine operated five seams. No 3 Pit worked the Plodder, Yard and Three Quarters Mines. No 4 Pit worked the Trencherbone, Three Quarters and Arley Mines, and was connected to the No 3 shaft at the level of the Yard Mine. At 7.50 a.m. a huge explosion swept through the Yard Mine, killing all but two of the men and boys who were working there. The shaft to No 4 and ventilation fans were damaged, causing access problems and danger of gas. There were only two survivors in the Yard Mine, Joe Staveley and William Davenport, who were found alive by the rescue team.

In the wake of the blast, afterdamp, a toxic mixture of gases created by the explosion, swept through the mines, killing Richard Clayton in Arley Mine. Survivors from No 4 Pit were brought to the surface and tended to by doctors and nurses who had been called urgently to the pithead. Some of the nurses and other volunteers would stay by the pit, working for up to fifty hours.

Crowds gathered at the pit, anxiously awaiting news of their family and friends. The Chief Inspector of Mines for Lancashire, Mr J. Gerrard, rushed to the scene. The mine's General Manager, Alfred Tonge, led the first exploration and rescue attempt using the only working cage in the No 4 shaft. He and other rescuers spent four hours in the pit searching for survivors and putting out small fires. William Turton, a fireman, was ordered into the mine by the General Manager to put out a small fire. Almost immediately, he was killed by the afterdamp. Other rescue volunteers came from the Howe Bridge Rescue Station of the Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Owners’ Association. The members of the rescue party were later awarded the King Edward Medal for their bravery.

King George V sent a message of condolence as it became clear that this was one of the worst mining disasters in decades. The Bishop of Manchester visited in the afternoon and conducted a service on the embankment next to the pit. By the end of Wednesday, everyone knew that over 300 lives had been lost. Some would wait throughout the night to watch bodies being brought to the surface. This process would take weeks as some bodies were only recovered as late as February 1911.

Next came the grim process of identification. Day by day, more bodies were brought from the mine. A small number of bodies were too badly damaged to be identified. Most of the men and boys who died lived at Westhoughton, Bolton, and nearby Atherton. Their families all suffered in different ways. Some women lost not only their husbands, but also their sons in the disaster. The Times declared that a Mrs Darbyshire lost her father, husband and two brothers. However, Peter Wood from the LAN-OPC Pretoria Pit Disaster website has pointed out that no-one called Darbyshire was killed. He suggests that the woman may have been Mrs Darlington (nee Eccleston), whose father, husband and two brothers were killed.

By using the ‘Grave details’ section on the database, you can identify other members of a family who died on the same day and were buried in the same grave, such as Thomas and Sydney Delafield. They were buried on different days at Westhoughton Cemetery and are found in different parts of the burial register.

This page in the burial register of Westhoughton Cemetery shows the entries of Sydney Delafield and of seven unidentified colliers

Overall, there were 344 fatalities at the Pretoria Pit. Criticisms were later made over the safety of the mine, the presence of gas, and the use of too many young firemen in the colliery. A full list of the victims can be found at the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk’s website: http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Westhoughton/Pretoria/index.html This also gives details of the burial places of the victims. Most of the victims lived in Westhoughton. 171 victims were buried at Westhoughton Cemetery, but others can be found in the DOL database in nearby grounds, such as Heaton Cemetery.

Register of Heaton Cemetery showing a victim of the Pretoria Pit disaster

Twenty-four bodies remained unidentified were buried in a vault at Westhoughton Cemetery; their names were entered into the burial register as ‘Unknown’. Eight were later identified from clothing and property but not reinterred.

As with the explosion at the Woolwich Arsenal a few years before, a Relief Fund was set up. Contributions were received from the King and Queen, Queen Alexandra, the Lord Mayor of London, several MPs and leading industrialists. 

The Memorial at Westhoughton Cemetery

Almost a year after the disaster, on 24 November 1911, a beautiful memorial was unveiled at Westhoughton Cemetery. It reads:

Sacred

to the memory of

344 MEN AND BOYS WHO LOST

THEIR LIVES BY AN EXPLOSION

AT THE PRETORIA PIT OF THE

HULTON COLLIERY CO. ON

THE 21ST DECEMBER 1910, 24

OF WHOM SLEEP UNDER THIS

MONUMENT, BEING UNIDENTIFIED

AT THE TIME OF BURIAL.

THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED

BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION, AS A

TOKEN OF SYMPATHY WITH

THE WIDOWS AND RELATIVES

OF THE VICTIMS, 171 OF WHOM

ARE BURIED IN THIS CEMETERY,

45 IN WINGATES, 20 IN DAISY

HILL, 3 IN THE CONGREGATIONAL

CHURCHYARDS, AND THE

REMAINDER IN VARIOUS

BURIAL GROUNDS.

"BE YE THEREFORE READY ALSO,

FOR THE SON OF MAN COOMETH

AT AN HOUR WHEN YE THINK NOT."

St Luke XII. 40.

The entire set of records for all seven cemeteries managed by Bolton Council are now on the Deceased Online website. All of them feature cemetery maps to help find grave locations, as well as grave details and digital scans of burial registers.

Sources:
Many thanks to Peter Wood of the LAN-OPC Pretoria Pit Disaster site who has clarified several details in this post. The website has been very well researched and is warmly recommended for those who want to learn more about this disaster.

"The Story Of The Disaster." Times [London, England] 22 Dec. 1910: 8. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.

"The Story Of The Disaster." Times [London, England] 22 Dec. 1910: 8. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.

"The Lancashire Colliery Accident." Times [London, England] 27 Dec. 1910: 10. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.

"The Lancashire Colliery Disaster." Times [London, England] 29 Dec. 1910: 8. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.

Bolton Revisited http://www.boltonrevisited.org.uk/s-pretoria-pit.html