On Friday students carried out fieldwork at St Mary’s Cemetery in Heworth. Whilst there, students noticed the plaque for the victims of the Felling Pit Disaster and the tribute to them inside the cemetery gates.
You may remember that we dedicated our music from our presentation of learning to the 92 that lost their lives as a result of the events on that day.
Here are the authors of the Felling Colliery section of the book in front of the plaque: Delaney, Katie and Lucy
Below is an extract from their writing for the book, which addresses the disaster with compassion and sensitivity. Beautiful work!
“The history of Felling Colliery is heartbreaking. The mining conditions were similar to other mines; terrible. The conditions in all mines including Felling were really hot or cold depending on how far away from the door you were.
Sadly a lot of men were getting injured while going down the mine. They would describe conditions as cramped, torrid and exhausting. For example, William Holle was a miner at age 15 for 4 years. He broke his thigh and was unable to work for 2 years because a waggon rode over his leg. He still suffered from dust inhalation throughout his life and said it made him feel dry inside; “it gives me heartburn.”
The colliery suffered four disasters in the 19th century. The disasters were in 1813, 1821 and 1847 as well as 1812 which was the most major of all the tragic events. It was on 25th May 1812 when firedamp (methane) caused an explosion. A miner had come into contact with firedamp underground. The flame of his candle caused the mine to go up in flames in a huge explosion. Of the 128 working in the pit at that time 92 miners had died and the rest luckily made it out alive. Since the disaster had affected a lot of miners and their families, from that point on, the government required miners to use safety lamps when going down the mines. This makes the Felling Pit Disaster a really important moment, not just because of the awful loss of life, but also for the improvements to mining conditions that came as a result of the uproar from the public and from miners.”
