|
May I suggest that you navigate the site via the
index on page 001.
PRIOR PAGE / NEXT PAGE
Do you want to make a comment? You can contact the webmaster here. A
site guestbook is
here.
Copyright?
Test.
To search for specific text on this page, just press 'CTRL +
F' & then enter your search term. A general site search facility is here.
This page is a page in progress. Started when just three mining related prints
were included. There surely are many more to be included in the future as they
become available & as time
permits. Presented in date sequence.
| 1 |
'The Morley Main Colliery, near Dewsbury, after the explosion', published in Illustrated London News on
Oct. 19,
1872. |
| 2 |
'The miners' strike
in Durham - Great mass meeting at Twizell in the County of Durham', published in Illustrated London News on May 3,
1879. |
| 3 |
'The
Colliery Disaster at Seaham near Sunderland', published in Illustrated London News on
Sep. 18,
1880. |
| 4 |
'The Durham
Colliery Strike : At the gates of Bear Park Colliery, discussing the situation', published in Illustrated London News on
Mar. 26,
1892. |
| 5 |
'A Collier's Cottage, Durham', published in Illustrated London News on Sep. 9,
1893. |
| 6 |
'The Coal Traffic
in the Thames : William Cory & Son's derricks at work', a print published in Illustrated London News on
Oct. 10,
1896. |
1) 'The Morley Main Colliery, near
Dewsbury, after the explosion.'
An image
ex Illustrated London News ('ILN') of Oct. 19, 1872. The print is frequently offered
for sale on eBay, & is available in five or six places, including eBay, as this page is
expanded in Jan. 2015. I have not seen the descriptive text which accompanied
the print, but understand that it in part read
thus.
Morley is in West Yorkshire, located close to Leeds & Bradford
with Dewsbury a little to the south.
There were many collieries located there in 1872 - Morley Main Colliery,
which opened in 1855, being
then the largest & the deepest. Owned by William Ackroyd & Brothers of Birkenshaw, it was located on Albert Road, overlooking the valley. It
featured two shafts sunk, respectively, to the depth
of 120 & 150 yards. Importantly, however, the mine included old workings.
Those old workings, termed a 'goaf', had not been worked for about two
years & were poorly ventilated. It was known that gas was coming out of the
'goaf'
- an under deputy had so advised Jonathan Simpkin, the mine manager - but the
warning went unheeded.
That was not the only mistake that was made. Mine
supervision was clearly very poor, the miners being accustomed to smoking
underground. They had matches in their pockets, indeed one of the miners who
died in the explosion had an empty packet of matches in his hand. Some miners
had lamp keys that they could open up their miners safety lamps to be able to
light their pipes.
The inevitable resulted. In the afternoon of Oct. 7,
1872, soon after 2 p.m. (or maybe an hour or so later) when 150 miners were underground, an explosion ripped through the mine, destroying the ventilation system in
a part of the mine. There presumably was a rock fall which cut off 34 miners most of whom died of
suffocation. Rescuers were sent in but,
hampered by the lack of ventilation, they had difficulty in bringing the dead to
the surface. 34 lives were lost & 11 pit
ponies died also. As Andy Dalton succinctly states - 'A quarter of the victims
were teenagers. Two were brothers, two were father and son. Thirteen women were
widowed, 50 children left fatherless and five elderly dependents were left
unsupported.'
A list of those who died, or at least of 33 of them,
can be found here.
A Durham Mining Museum page re the disaster
(with 34 names) is
here. Many
of the dead were 17 years of age or younger & three of them were just 14 years
old. (The name lists are not identical incidentally). We thank Brian Appleyard for the Illustrated London News text which you can read
here.
Australian newspaper reports (1 & 2)
re the disaster ex Trove, Australia here & here. A portion of an 1877 report to Parliament, available via Google Books, re the
Morley explosion.
I read that there is little
at the site today to
commemorate the disaster though the Miners Arms public house is close by. The
mine closed on Jul. 23, 1909. Corrections or additional data (perhaps a scan of the ILN related
text) is invited.
2) 'The miners' strike
in Durham - Great mass meeting at Twizell in the County of Durham'
An image
ex Illustrated London News ('ILN') of May 3, 1879
- by an artist whose initials are C.R. The print is frequently
offered for sale on eBay, the source, long ago now of the image below.
The print relates to
the General Strike which commenced on Apl. 5, 1879, the strike called under the
circumstances set out in some detail elsewhere on site, specifically
here. Click the image to see a larger version. It would seem that there was
a related descriptive text - on page 423 of the ILN issue.
3) 'The Colliery Disaster at Seaham near Sunderland'
A double-page spread
ex Illustrated London News ('ILN') of Sep. 18, 1880. The illustration, which
comprises 7 individual images related to the disaster, is frequently
offered for sale both on eBay & elsewhere. There clearly was a related text, to
be found on page 283 of that issue, such text not being presently available to the webmaster.
The image below, which surely originated on eBay has been in my files for many
years now, so the eBay vendor in question is unknown. From its quality, however, it
may very well have been provided 'prints-4-all'
who have the print available in Jan. 2015
as this page is expanded.
Normally, I would provide, as with other
images on this page, a paragraph or paragraphs that summarise the events at the Seaham pit which precipitated the publication of the print.
Certainly there was a large underground explosion, in the early hours of Sep. 8,
1880, as a result of which 164
miners lost their lives. It may very well be, however, that such summary is not
necessary - I may well be able to just provide links to the extensive data
that is already WWW available. But we shall see.
4) 'The Durham Colliery Strike : At
the gates of Bear Park Colliery, discussing the situation'
A half-page image
ex Illustrated London News ('ILN') of Mar. 26, 1892, by an artist with the initials W.B.W. The page is frequently
offered for sale on eBay, the upper portion of the page being related text &
a sketch of miners gathering at the corner of King Street in Durham. The rear of the 16 x 11 in. page, as ILN published, had
unrelated text & imagery.
The page relates to the 1892 strike
detailed in the text above, specifically here. The print from which the image below comes,
was for sale
by 'prints-4-all'
in late Nov. 2014. It is possible that it is still available, so do check with the
eBay vendor should you be interested in acquiring a copy.
5) 'A Collier's Cottage, Durham'
An image
ex Illustrated London News ('ILN') of Sep. 9, 1893, by prolific artist Richard Caton Woodville (1856/1927) (R.C.W.) While the print is frequently
offered for sale on eBay, the print below is for sale
by 'prints-4-all' in
early Dec. 2014. The rear of the 16 x 11 in. page, as ILN published, had
unrelated text & imagery.
6) 'The Coal Traffic in the
Thames : William Cory & Son's derricks at work'
An image
ex Illustrated London News ('ILN') of Oct. 10, 1896
- by artist Charles (W.) Wylie. The print below is for sale
by 'prints-4-all'
in early Jan. 2015. Do check out the eBay item or check with the
eBay vendor should the listing be terminated by the time you read this.
Now the text to which the print was an illustration is most interesting indeed. It describes the
birth of William Cory and Son,
Limited, in 1896, the result of a consolidation of no less than eight
companies (including William Cory and Son), all involved in the coal trade in
the city of London. Such text is now on site, and can be read verbatim here
- it can accordingly be WWW searched & found by all who are interested in the
history.
May I suggest that you navigate the site via the
index on page 001.
PRIOR PAGE / NEXT PAGE
Do you want to make a comment? A site guestbook is here.
[ ] £ ½
To the
Special Pages Index.
| A SITE SEARCH FACILITY
THE GUEST BOOK - GO
HERE
|
|
|
