Easington Colliery
Encyclopedia
Easington Colliery is an old coal mining
town
in County Durham
, in England
. It is situated to the north of Horden
, and a short distance to the east of Easington
Village. The town is known for a mining accident
or disaster which occurred, on 29 May 1951 when an explosion
in the mine resulted in the deaths of 83 men (including 2 rescue workers). It has a population of 4,959.
In 1993 the mine was closed, with the loss of 1,400 jobs. This caused a decline in the local economy; Easington Colliery is currently the 4th most economically deprived place in England and the obesity
capital of England (Aug 2006).
It was just before dawn when sparks
from a mechanical coal cutter, working in the Duck Bill district of the Five Quarter seam, ignited a pocket of gas
. The result was a massive explosion
which brought tons of rock and earth crashing down into the Duck Bill district of Five Quarter Seam. Entombed within the seam, some 900 ft below the surface, were 81 men. Villagers were alerted to the plight of their loved ones by the eerie wail of the pit's accident alarm system - the sound every mining community dreaded. "We were living in Oak Road at the time and seven men from our street were killed. One of our neighbours lost her husband and her father," said Mary Graham, (née Garside), now 73. "Our Tom was in the pit for about 10 days before they brought his body out. He was found with his pit pony
. You have no idea how horrendous that time was."
Mary still recalls how she spent the night before the explosion chatting about horse racing with her adored older brother. "We talked until about 1am and then went to bed. Tommy was on first shift, which started at about 3am, so he'd have only have had a couple of hours sleep," she said."That was the last time I saw him. He was a smashing lad, the apple of mam and dad's eye and I still miss and think about him to this day. I often wonder what Tommy would have been like now, what he would have done with his life. As long as the pit was there, though, I reckon he would have been working in it."
As the accident alarm wailed out across the village, so miners and their families flocked to the pithead to help out with the rescue.
The first official rescue team to arrive was the pit's own rescue brigade. One miner, speaking in 2008 only weeks before he died, relived the experience. Tommy Houghton, a 39-year-old deputy at the pit, said: “It was two o-clock in the morning when we were knocked up and the man said ‘bring your pit clothes and you don’t need an oil lamp, your cap lamp will do.’
Tommy was also one of the first rescue workers to arrive at the seat of the explosion by the shearer machine on the High Main Seam, known by the miners as The Ducks. He believes that the operator of the machine must have seen what was happening. “We found his body behind one of the supports. He must have seen it coming and was hiding behind there. They always said The Ducks was sure to go and it did.”
After the disaster Tommy and the other members of the team were honoured at a special dinner where they all received a commemorative clock.
George Ottowell, a member of the Mine rescue
Team, said: "It is as vivid in my mind today as when it happened. "As we turned into Ascot Street, we found a mass of people. The crowd opened up for us and they looked at us with hope in their eyes. We then went straight down the pit and found devastation, that's it in a nutshell. All the ventilation and lighting had been destroyed and there was a haze of coal dust
." George, now 82, had never been to Easington before, although he later moved to the village in 1959 after securing a job as a safety officer at the pit. "Working pits were always very noisy, but there was a deathly quiet down there," he said.
All 81 entombed miners perished in the explosion, as did two rescue workers who were overcome by poisonous gas
. The whole village was left in mourning. The King and Queen sent a message of "heartfelt sympathy" to the people of Easington and a statue was erected in memory of the lost miners. Villagers also planted 83 trees along Memorial Lane, a road leading to the Welfare Park, in tribute to each man, which has become a cherished symbol of remembrance. Indeed, such is the regard in which these trees are still held that, when one was removed to make way for a £750,000 revamp, it sparked an outcry. Mary's brother, John Garside, said: "I can remember as a schoolboy coming up here to help plant the 83 trees. To see one of them deliberately uprooted is heartbreaking."
Although many of Easington's older miners have now died, memories of the victims the explosion claimed are still passed on to younger generations of their families. "Their memories won't die," said Mary, "not so long as we kept telling their stories. When they shut the pit and flooded it, the spirits of these men stayed down there. They will never be forgotten, not while their family's families are here."
The men who lost their lives in the 1951 disaster were all from Easington Colliery unless otherwise stated. The youngest victim was 18-years-old, the oldest was 68. The average age of the pitmen killed was 43.
In 1956 the Public Band and the Colliery Band amalgamated to become the Easington Colliery Band as it is today. April 1993 witnessed the end of an era when Easington Colliery finally closed. The band is now totally self-supporting and relies on the work put in by the band members at concerts throughout the year to raise the funds to keep the band alive. The band is still based in Easington Colliery in the old colliery pay office opposite the Memorial Gardens, which is on the site of the old colliery. The building is the last remaining evidence of the pit.
.
Singer-songwriter Jez Lowe
was born and brought up in Easington. His song, "Last of the Widows", was written in 1991 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the pit disaster. Many of his other songs are inspired by life in County Durham and Easington in particular.
In 1971, members of rock band The Who
shot the cover photograph for their album "Who's Next
" at a concrete piling protruding from a spoil tip in the area. This cover was voted by the VH1 network as the second greatest album cover of all time.
In 2008, the town was featured in an episode of Channel 4
's The Secret Millionaire, where advertising mogul Carl Hopkins donated over £30,000 to the community.
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
, in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is situated to the north of Horden
Horden
Horden is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated on the North Sea coast, to the east of Peterlee, approximately 12 miles south of Sunderland. Horden was a mining village until the closure of the Horden Colliery in 1987. Main features include the Welfare and Memorial Parks and St...
, and a short distance to the east of Easington
Easington, County Durham
Easington is a town in eastern County Durham, England. It comprises the ancient village of Easington Village and the ex-mining town of Easington Colliery, which are separate civil parishes. It is located at the junction of the A182 leading north-west to Hetton-le-Hole. Seaham Harbour and...
Village. The town is known for a mining accident
Mining accident
A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals.Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially in the processes of coal mining and hard rock mining...
or disaster which occurred, on 29 May 1951 when an explosion
Explosion
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive"...
in the mine resulted in the deaths of 83 men (including 2 rescue workers). It has a population of 4,959.
History
Easington Colliery began when the pit was sunk in 1899, near the coast. Thousands of workers came to the area from all parts of Britain and with the new community came new shops, pubs, clubs, and many rows of terraced "colliery houses" for the mine workers and their families.In 1993 the mine was closed, with the loss of 1,400 jobs. This caused a decline in the local economy; Easington Colliery is currently the 4th most economically deprived place in England and the obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
capital of England (Aug 2006).
The Easington Pit Disaster of 29 May 1951
Ember
Embers are the glowing, hot coals made of greatly heated wood, coal, or other carbon-based material that remain after, or sometimes precede a fire. Embers can glow very hot, sometimes as hot as the fire which created them...
from a mechanical coal cutter, working in the Duck Bill district of the Five Quarter seam, ignited a pocket of gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
. The result was a massive explosion
Explosion
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive"...
which brought tons of rock and earth crashing down into the Duck Bill district of Five Quarter Seam. Entombed within the seam, some 900 ft below the surface, were 81 men. Villagers were alerted to the plight of their loved ones by the eerie wail of the pit's accident alarm system - the sound every mining community dreaded. "We were living in Oak Road at the time and seven men from our street were killed. One of our neighbours lost her husband and her father," said Mary Graham, (née Garside), now 73. "Our Tom was in the pit for about 10 days before they brought his body out. He was found with his pit pony
Pit pony
A pit pony was a type of pony commonly used underground in coal mines from the mid 18th up until the mid 20th century.-History:Ponies began to be used underground, often replacing child or female labour, as distances from pit head to coal face became greater...
. You have no idea how horrendous that time was."
Mary still recalls how she spent the night before the explosion chatting about horse racing with her adored older brother. "We talked until about 1am and then went to bed. Tommy was on first shift, which started at about 3am, so he'd have only have had a couple of hours sleep," she said."That was the last time I saw him. He was a smashing lad, the apple of mam and dad's eye and I still miss and think about him to this day. I often wonder what Tommy would have been like now, what he would have done with his life. As long as the pit was there, though, I reckon he would have been working in it."
As the accident alarm wailed out across the village, so miners and their families flocked to the pithead to help out with the rescue.
The first official rescue team to arrive was the pit's own rescue brigade. One miner, speaking in 2008 only weeks before he died, relived the experience. Tommy Houghton, a 39-year-old deputy at the pit, said: “It was two o-clock in the morning when we were knocked up and the man said ‘bring your pit clothes and you don’t need an oil lamp, your cap lamp will do.’
Tommy was also one of the first rescue workers to arrive at the seat of the explosion by the shearer machine on the High Main Seam, known by the miners as The Ducks. He believes that the operator of the machine must have seen what was happening. “We found his body behind one of the supports. He must have seen it coming and was hiding behind there. They always said The Ducks was sure to go and it did.”
After the disaster Tommy and the other members of the team were honoured at a special dinner where they all received a commemorative clock.
George Ottowell, a member of the Mine rescue
Mine rescue
Mine rescue is the very specialized job of rescuing miners and others who have become trapped or injured underground in mines because of mining accidents and disasters such as explosions caused by firedamp, roof falls or floods.- Expert volunteers :...
Team, said: "It is as vivid in my mind today as when it happened. "As we turned into Ascot Street, we found a mass of people. The crowd opened up for us and they looked at us with hope in their eyes. We then went straight down the pit and found devastation, that's it in a nutshell. All the ventilation and lighting had been destroyed and there was a haze of coal dust
Coal dust
Coal dust is a fine powdered form of coal, which is created by the crushing, grinding, or pulverizing of coal. Because of the brittle nature of coal, coal dust can be created during mining, transportation, or by mechanically handling coal.-Explosions:...
." George, now 82, had never been to Easington before, although he later moved to the village in 1959 after securing a job as a safety officer at the pit. "Working pits were always very noisy, but there was a deathly quiet down there," he said.
All 81 entombed miners perished in the explosion, as did two rescue workers who were overcome by poisonous gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
. The whole village was left in mourning. The King and Queen sent a message of "heartfelt sympathy" to the people of Easington and a statue was erected in memory of the lost miners. Villagers also planted 83 trees along Memorial Lane, a road leading to the Welfare Park, in tribute to each man, which has become a cherished symbol of remembrance. Indeed, such is the regard in which these trees are still held that, when one was removed to make way for a £750,000 revamp, it sparked an outcry. Mary's brother, John Garside, said: "I can remember as a schoolboy coming up here to help plant the 83 trees. To see one of them deliberately uprooted is heartbreaking."
Although many of Easington's older miners have now died, memories of the victims the explosion claimed are still passed on to younger generations of their families. "Their memories won't die," said Mary, "not so long as we kept telling their stories. When they shut the pit and flooded it, the spirits of these men stayed down there. They will never be forgotten, not while their family's families are here."
The men who lost their lives in the 1951 disaster were all from Easington Colliery unless otherwise stated. The youngest victim was 18-years-old, the oldest was 68. The average age of the pitmen killed was 43.
Easington Colliery Brass Band
Easington Colliery Band was founded in 1913. Players with band experience were encouraged by the management to come from the West of Durham to work at the colliery and play in the band. The band was supported financially and run by the joint board of unions, until the start of World War II. The band played for community activities, such as dances, concerts, and competitions. For the duration of the war the Easington Colliery Youth Band became the National Fire Service Band, which was eventually 'demobbed' in 1945 to become the Easington Public Band.In 1956 the Public Band and the Colliery Band amalgamated to become the Easington Colliery Band as it is today. April 1993 witnessed the end of an era when Easington Colliery finally closed. The band is now totally self-supporting and relies on the work put in by the band members at concerts throughout the year to raise the funds to keep the band alive. The band is still based in Easington Colliery in the old colliery pay office opposite the Memorial Gardens, which is on the site of the old colliery. The building is the last remaining evidence of the pit.
The Legend of the Hare
It is said that the men of Castle Eden enjoyed racing greyhounds in the fields round about. One year a strange hare began to spoil their sport by leading the dogs a merry dance by crossing their path and turning them from their proper game. It never once failed to deflect the hounds, drawing them after it into Castle Eden Dene. The men wished they could catch the hare but it always evaded their most cunning snares. Eventually they consulted an old man skilled in healing horses and cows, hoping that he could help them. He told the men to take with them a bloodhound rather than a greyhound. The next day they did as the old man said and let loose the bloodhound. Soon the hare and the hound disappeared into the dene. Just as the men had given up hope they saw the hare running up the other side of the dene with the hound close behind. The hare had been forced out of its refuge. The men mounted their horses and crossed the dene just in time to see the hare running towards Easington Village. They drew close enough to see that the hare was limping and the bloodhound was gaining on it. On they went until they reached the village green. The hare crossed the green and headed towards a little stone cottage at the edge of the green. There was a narrow gap at the bottom of the door through which it bolted. As it did so the bloodhound caught one of its hind legs, but the hare shook it free. The men tried the door but found it was locked. They knocked but nobody answered so they burst open the door and rushed inside. But there was no hare to be seen. Instead they saw an old woman sitting before the fire bandaging her wounded heel. Nobody spoke, but the men knew that her witchcraft had been found out at last. They left her home and never again did the mischievous hare spoil their sport.Other information
Easington Colliery provided the setting for the 2000 film Billy ElliotBilly Elliot
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British drama film written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry. Set in the fictional town of "Everington" in the real County Durham, UK, it stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, an aspiring dancer, Gary Lewis as his coal miner father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older...
.
Singer-songwriter Jez Lowe
Jez Lowe
Jez Lowe is an English folk singer-songwriter. Lowe was born and raised in County Durham, in a coal mining family with Irish roots. He is known primarily for his compositions dealing with daily life in North-East England, particularly in his hometown of Easington Colliery. He performs both as a...
was born and brought up in Easington. His song, "Last of the Widows", was written in 1991 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the pit disaster. Many of his other songs are inspired by life in County Durham and Easington in particular.
In 1971, members of rock band The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
shot the cover photograph for their album "Who's Next
Who's Next
Who's Next is the fifth studio album by English rock band The Who, released in August 1971. The album has origins in a rock opera conceived by Pete Townshend called Lifehouse. The ambitious, complex project did not come to fruition at the time and instead, many of the songs written for the project...
" at a concrete piling protruding from a spoil tip in the area. This cover was voted by the VH1 network as the second greatest album cover of all time.
In 2008, the town was featured in an episode of Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's The Secret Millionaire, where advertising mogul Carl Hopkins donated over £30,000 to the community.
Sources
- http://ww2.durham.gov.uk/community/easington/colliery.htm
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5299510.stm
- http://www.easingtoncollieryband.org/index.htm