Wednesday 18 November 2015

Felling Pit Disaster Revisited



The Rev John Hodgson was heavily involved in the aftermath of the Felling Pit Disaster of 1812 and, against the wishes of the Pit Owners, carried out a full investigation and published a detailed report.

The report is published online and deals with the immediate aftermath and the long period that elapsed before all the bodies, except one which was never found, were recovered and interred. 
Being a man of the cloth, rather than a hard nosed mining accident investigator, the Rev Hodgson’s whole report is primarily about the loss of life and the suffering of the widows and orphans left behind.

He presumably didn’t want the most likely cause of the accident to be stated, lest it put the huge weight of human suffering, upon any persons who might have been responsible.
 It’s more than 200 years ago so I’m willing to state the most likely cause, in my view.

See William Pit, with its chimney, marked on the map in the upper right corner

Whatever we might think of the owners, the Brandling brothers and their partners, Felling pit was better than most. The William Pit’s primary purpose, you could say its only purpose, using its constantly lit furnace, was to draw out the foul air and discharge it high in the sky through its 40 foot high chimney, marked on this map.
That pit, as you can see was, opposite Woodbine Terrace at, what is now called the Q pit area of The Felling, which is a collective mishearing of Cube Pit.  The Rev Hodgson refers in the report to the Tube, which is an alternate word for the Cube which means the furnace system for drawing out the bad air.



The furnace, or Cube, is an expensive safety device, who’s effectiveness relies on the furnace (cube) always being lit, even when the pit is shut, sometimes on Saturdays and always on Sundays for if the furnace goes out the foul & explosive air accumulates underground. This accident happened on a Monday morning and when accidents in cube pits occurred on a Monday the cause was  mostly determined to be that the furnace (cube) was allowed to go out over the weekend. In this case the destruction underground was so great, with no one left to tell the tale, that who can say, other than the men scheduled to be on shift that weekend, whether or not the furnace had been allowed to go out.


Rev Hodgson says this at the end of his report

“I pass over the many theories and absurd suppositions invented to explain the cause of this calamity. The power that destroyed, raised and marshalled its forces in secrecy - it left no evidence to shew from what corner of the mine it issued out to battle. In its effects it indeed proved that it either availed itself of the delusive security, the inactivity, or the want of strength in the means employed to keep it in subjection: but let us, with that charity which "thinketh no evil," refrain from enquiry into causes which commenced and wrought in darkness, and concerning which the clearest information that can be collected will amount to little more than conjecture and uncertainty.”


“Phew” must have been the utterings of the weekend furnace men


One does wonder about the obelisk in Heworth churchyard which carries the date of Sunday 24th of May rather than the day of the accident Monday 25th of May. 
Was it an uncharacteristic mistake by the very precise Rev Hodgson or was it a breadcrumb of truth left by him to a future generation?




Monday 16 November 2015

We Live in a Lumpy Place

That the Felling and Low Fell area is a lumpy place is revealed by current and past local place names in Christenings, Marriages and Deaths in Church records. Here's my lumpy address list starting at the Tyne in the Felling area and heading West to the Team
Snowdon's Hole
Goose Bank
Ballast Hills
Holly Hill
Bank Top
Nether Heworth (nether means low)
Over Heworth (High Heworth)
Highburn House
Low Leam
High Leam
Incline House
White Hill

Windy Nook
High Fell
Sod House Bank

Old Durham Road traversing the pinnacle of the Fell traveling North-South. The East West journey rises 600 feet up from The Team to here and then falls 600 feet down to the Tyne at Felling Shore

Sheriff Hill
Low Fell
Belle Vue Bank
Chowdene Bank

High Eighton
Low Eighton
Eighton Banks
Byker Hill
Loosing Hill
High Hills
Low Urpeth
The Mount
Pit Hill
Silver Hill

There's no doubt more. I'll try to add to the list