Sujet

The Colliery Explosion near Accrington, 1883. Creator: William James Palmer.

Légende

The Colliery Explosion near Accrington, 1883. 'Sixty-three lives have been lost by this disaster...at the Altham Colliery, North Lancashire...The explosion of gas occurred at half-past eight in the morning, in the Moorfield pit, which is 283 yards deep. A hundred and ten men and boys were below at the time, when a rumbling noise was heard under ground, followed by a loud report, and a dense volume of smoke issued from the mouth of the shaft. The iron plates which form the platform at the top of the shaft were hurled from their place; the cage stopped in its descent, and it was evident that the pit mouth was blocked up. Immediate alarm was given, and an immense crowd of people...assembled on the pit bank. Nearly all of them had relatives in the pit, and many distressing scenes were witnessed. A party of volunteers...went down the Whinney Hill shaft, and, by three o'clock in the afternoon, forty-eight survivors had been rescued. All these were more or less burned...many had sustained severe scalp wounds and cuts on their limbs, caused either by being thrown down by the shock of the explosion, or falling in their hurried attempt to escape...A subscription is being raised for the benefit of the widows and children of [the] men who perished'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Notre référence

HRM25A50_350

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

45,5Mo (5,3Mo) / 30,9cm x 36,9cm / 3648 x 4355 (300dpi)

Mots clés

England female women woman people male boy boys child children work man men arts light night industry dark danger art guy dangerous British dramatic death industrial accident explosion mining miner gas darkness underground disaster Victorian century lancashire gesturing Britain catastrophe newspapers press print concept incident injured injury time of day B&W pit shaft hand gesture coal mine coal mining engraved engraving peril Coal Industry 19th century black & white black and white B W deaths coal miner coal miners nineteenth century The Print Collector brazier child labour colliery Illustrated London News industrial accident TGN wood engraving ILN William Heysham Overend newspaper Accrington William James Palmer Palmer William James coalmine 19th-century The Illustrated London News W. J. Palmer Palmer W. J. afterdamp Overend William Heysham William Heysman Overend WH Overend