By Joshua Daniels
A dense choking fog spread over Rawmarsh in November 1874.
There had been a fatal explosion at Warren Vale Colliery, the second such incident since it was sunk in 1840.
It was a Friday, 20th November, and families should have been looking forward to a weekend together. But disaster struck just before 8am when the colliery, not far from Swinton and Kilnhurst, exploded. Only an hour before, the fire-trier had found no gas at the workings of the 127-yard-deep Barnsley seam.
It was thought to have been caused by a roof fall that drove dangerous methane gas into where workers were operating with lit candles.
About 160 men were working the early shift when the explosion occurred. There were 23 killed, as well as two horses who perished in the explosion. Amongst the deceased were father and son Richard and Samuel Skelton and two brothers Luke and Isaac Oxley.
Each widow received a £6 burial fee, along with five shillings per week, and one shilling per child. Grave diggers in Rawmarsh, Swinton and Kilnhurst worked overtime to ensure the bodies were buried in a timely manner.
Many others were seriously burned and injured. The afterdamp was so severe it took several attempts for the survivors to escape. The site of the explosion was over a kilometre away from the shaft.
Warren Vale Colliery, also know as Piccadilly Colliery, was run by Wakefield-based J & J Charlesworth & Company, who also owned connecting collieries at Kilnhurst and Warren House in Upper Haugh. They leased the land from Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, the 5th Earl Fitzwilliam.
The coal industry was a major employer in Victorian Rawmarsh and had been since the 1400s. It was one of the largest villages in the country, with a population of over 2,500 in 1851; this boomed to over 14,500 in 1901. There were many coal mines in the area, including Aldwarke Main, Roundwood and Stubbin, as well as the three aforementioned pits run by J & J Charlesworth & Co.
The Charlesworths were proprietors of many pits across Yorkshire and their management style had been criticised a quarter-of-a-century earlier when another hauntingly similar explosion occurred at Warren Vale in December 1851.
At around 7am, in the northern end of the seam, an almighty explosion trapped miners in the pit. Almighty is almost an understatement: the explosion threw two carts, one filled with over one-and-a-half tonnes of coal, into the headgear. The face of someone stood over a mile away was blackened by the explosion. There were 51 men killed that day, 24 of which were boys under the age of 16.
The two explosions echoed each other; that too had been caused by a roof fall which forced gas into the areas where miners were working with candles. Following the first explosion, it was recommended that further coal inspectors be introduced into pits, as there were only four in the country.
They also recommended better ventilation, which was adopted at the pit, with the construction of a larger furnace that was fed with fresh air. However, men still worked with open candles instead of the safer Davy or Stephenson lamps.
In his report of the second explosion, a certain Mr Wardell suggested that Stephenson lamps should be used in the future, a notion echoed by the coroner.
The last person to die in the pit was 22-year-old trimmer William Robinson was killed after four tonnes of coal fell on him on 21st February 1910.
Warren Vale Colliery, then owned by the Warren Vale Coal Company, was closed on 21st March 1943 because of the war, with the 180 men employed there redeployed to Manvers Main or Kilnhurst Colliery.
