Yorkshire history: The terrible toll of fatalities at collieries including the Huskar disaster, Lundhill Colliery explosion and Barrow colliery disaster

A monument placed in Silkstone churchyard in 1841 marked the mass grave of the Huskar victims. It was inscribed with the names of those who had suffered. To mark the 150th anniversary of the tragedy in 1988, a memorial was erected by local people in Nether Royds/Nabs Wood, near the site of the Huskar pit.

Work began on establishing Lundhill colliery at Hemingfield, near Wombwell in March 1853. During August of the following year a massive explosion killed six men and caused much damage. Then, on February 19, 1857, a larger explosion occurred at Lundhill, by now one of Yorkshire’s largest and deepest pits. There were 189 victims and this made front page news for the Illustrated London News. The tragedy left 220 orphaned children and 90 widows. To the men and boys who lost their lives, an obelisk was erected in All Saints churchyard at Darfield.

For a number of years Barnsley's Oaks or 'Great Ardsley Main' colliery, dating from at least the 1820s, had the worst mining disaster record in the world.

Around mid-day, on June 11, 1845 a fire damp explosion killed three men – all in their 20s – at the Oaks Colliery, owned by Firth, Barber & Co. on land leased from the Micklethwaite family of Ardsley Hall. Amongst the injured were three children. The explosion was allegedly caused when one of the deceased took a lighted candle too far into the workings. This was after being told to use lamps instead of candles.

Just under two years later, at around 3pm on Friday, March 5, 1847, there was another Oaks colliery fire damp explosion with the loss of 73 men and boys.

One newspaper report stated: 'Several persons near the mouth of the pit were alarmed by a terrific explosion from the shaft, which was followed by an eruption of smoke, timber, coal, stone etc, resembling the eruption of a volcano.'

Once again, the cause of the explosion was put down to a naked light being present in an area where inflammable gas was known to exist. Following the disaster, noted geologist and palaeontologist, Sir H.T. der La Beche, along with a mines' officer (appointed under the 1842 Coal Mines Act), arrived in Barnsley to investigate. Their report recommended a system of government inspection of mines but this was not to be established for a number years afterwards.

Given that the Oaks had a history of explosions and unrest amongst the workforce, it is perhaps too easy now to say that a major disaster was imminent. But when it did occur no-one could have predicted the ferocity and tragic loss of many lives.

Over December 12/13, 1866, several explosions rocked the colliery resulting in the deaths of what is now believed to be 361 men and boys. In terms of numbers killed, the tragedy was unprecedented and remained Britain's worst mining disaster, until 1913, following the explosion at the Universal Colliery, Senghenydd near Caerphilly in South Wales where 439 were killed. However, the Oaks disaster remains the worst in an English coalfield.

Learning of the tragedy, Queen Victoria sent a telegram from Windsor Castle to the Oaks, which read: 'The Queen desires to make inquiry as to the possible extent of the explosion, and whether the loss of life is as serious as reported'.

In a second telegram, the Queen pledged £200 to a relief fund established by the Lord Mayor of London for the widows and children of the victims. Funds were also established in other parts of the country.

During the 20th century there were over 130 deaths in the Barnsley pits

Barrow colliery will always be remembered for the accident which occurred there on Friday afternoon, November 15, 1907 when seven men were killed. The accident occurred in the no. 3 shaft which served the Parkgate, Thorncliffe, and Silkstone seams. Sixteen men – the last of those working on the morning shift – boarded at the Parkgate seam, which was the nearest to the surface. The cage was then lowered to the Thorncliffe seam, to allow a horse-keeper just coming on duty to leave. It was there something went wrong. The footplate over which the men usually walked out of the cage into the pit was not lifted up before the cage started. As soon as the engine began to wind, the cage tilted heavily with the result that seven men were thrown out of the cage and fell to the bottom of the shaft. As soon as possible the cage was stopped, and helpers went down by another shaft, but the seven who had fallen were dead. Of the others in the cage, three were badly injured and had to be taken to the hospital.

At the Wharncliffe Silkstone colliery at Pilley, Silkstone on May 30, 1914, twelve men lost their lives in an explosion of coal gas. At the disaster inquest, it was said ‘the jury are of the opinion the whole of the management have been very negligent, but not criminally so.’

A terrible disaster rocked the Houghton mining community at approximately 6.50pm on June 12, 1975 when an explosion at the Meltonfield Seam workings killed five miners and one sustained serious injury. Coal Board chairman, Sir Derek Ezra, Energy Minister, Tony Benn and Bill Simpson, chairman of the Health and Safety Commission, were all at the scene. Sir Derek Ezra said: 'We have not been having many of these accidents recently but it does not make them any less tragic when they occur.'

On October 16, 1979, Yorkshire NUM president Arthur Scargill unveiled a memorial to 58 men, who died in a disaster on August 6, 1936 at Wharncliffe Woodmoor colliery. Made from pithead winding gear, the memorial was placed on the reclaimed site of the former colliery at Carlton near Barnsley. Harry Dancer, Chairman of Barnsley MBC's Development and Planning Committee, initiated this scheme which was accepted by that committee on August 31, 1978 and cost £950. Barnsley’s MP, Roy Mason, was among the onlookers. Arthur Scargill said the memorial should remind everyone of the price of coal and the debt owed to the mining industry. In 2008 Barnsley Councillor Len Picken (Councillor Picken was the Mayor of Barnsley for the municipal year 2007/2008) and successfully campaigned to have the old half pulley wheel moved to a more prominent location at the entrance of the Wharncliffe Business Park. The new memorial was a more emotive piece of work that included the half pulley wheel, a stone frieze, sculptured by Harry Malkin. It shows depicts two miners searching for their lost colleagues and stands just over ten feet.