Lancashire pit disaster exhibition

A new exhibition at the Museum of Wigan Life in Lancashire commemorates the 100^th anniversary of the county’s worst ever mining disaster, and the third worst in British history.

On December 21, 1910, about 900 men and boys were working on the day shift at the Hulton Colliery No. 3 Bank Pit, Westhoughton, known locally as the Pretoria Pit. Just before eight o’ clock in the morning, flames shot out from the main shaft, following an explosion below.

In all 344 miners were killed. As ever they were drawn from tight-knit communities around the pit. One local woman lost her husband, four sons and two brothers. An inquest jury decided that the probable cause was that an overheated safety lamp had ignited gas and coal dust.

The worst mining disaster in British history occurred at Senghenydd, near Caerphilly, less than three years later, on October 14, 1913. A total of 440 miners died after an explosion there. The chief inspector of mines said there had been ‘a disquieting laxity in the management of the mine’, and the manager was fined £24 for five breaches of mining regulations.

For more on both disasters, see A Disastrous History of Britain. The exhibition at Wigan entitled ‘Don’t go down the mine’ runs until March 22, 2011.

http://www.wigan.gov.uk/News/PitExhibition.htm

Tornadoes - in Britain!

This week, a tornado damaged the roofs of two houses in Newport, South Wales. Unpleasant enough for the people who lived there, but much less serious than the twister that hit north-west London in December 2006 which resulted in damage to up to 150 houses and many cars. Six people were injured, one seriously.

Astonishingly, the UK suffers more tornadoes per square mile than any other country on earth. About 30 a year are reported, but fortunately most are very weak. Britain’s deadliest ever tornado appears to have been one that hit Edwardsville, just a few miles from Newport, on October 27, 1913, killing six people.

The USA is generally regarded as the worst place for tornadoes, and it has been hit by many devastating twisters – the most deadly being the Great Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925 that killed more than 700 people, but the worst the world has ever seen was the one that struck Bangladesh on April 26, 1989, devastating at least 50 villages and killing an estimated 1,300.