Disaster

Mist over the meadow

/ The Friends of Hemingfield Colliery (FoHC) / 1 Comment

Saturday 10th July 2021 was almost a dot day. Not because of the mounting excitement ahead of the Euro 2020 final and the hopes (ultimately dashed) for England men’s football team, but rather because the weather forecast looked wet and miserable. Nevertheless the Friends and regular volunteers braved the elements.

Emerging from the mist, the approach to Hemingfield Colliery, Sat 10th July 2021

In the event, ‘Plan B’ of indoor building recording work, followed by a swift exit proved unnecessary, and it was a very active and incredibly hot-and-humid day to be working outdoors, mostly bringing the growth of green stuff back into order.

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Lundhill Colliery Disaster, 19th February 1857

/ The Friends of Hemingfield Colliery (FoHC) / Leave a comment
Engraved view of Lundhill (or Lund Hill) Colliery after the disaster, showing crowds assembled at the surface buildings (Illustrated London News, 28 February 1857, p.195)

On this day in 1857, a horrific underground explosion of firedamp occurred at Lundhill Colliery, between Wombwell and Hemingfield, claiming 189 lives, including 120 adults and 69 children.

Snippet from the Lundhill Colliery entry in Mines Inspector Charles Morton’s Report of the Working of the Coal Mines Inspection Act (18 & 19 Vict. c.108.) in Yorkshire, for the Year ending the 31st December 1857, HMSO, 1858, p.134

The impact on families in the community was catastrophic, leaving 90 widows and a total of 220 children without a father. We remember the victims and the devastating impact on the local community, and is a reminder of the serious dangers of working gaseous coal seams underground with the rules, practices and tools available at the time.

This commemorative piece is produced as part of the research underway for our Hemingfield’s Hidden History project, enabled by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, looking into the working lives and conditions in and around Hemingfield Colliery.

Hemingfield Colliery (also know as Elsecar Low pit) was working the same Barnsley seam, and employed the neighbours of Lundhill miners, so it was a community tragedy. Hemingfield Colliery itself had only too recently (Dec 1852) experienced its own loss of life via a underground explosion.

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150th Anniversary of the Oaks Colliery Disaster

/ The Friends of Hemingfield Colliery (FoHC) / 1 Comment

Oaks Colliery Disaster 1866-2016

Thanks go to the Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership the following logo is available to users free for non-commercial use in materials relating to the disaster.

December 2016 will mark 150 years since the Oaks Disaster in which over 360 miners died.

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