Bedworth, Warwickshire

On Monday morning a large number of the miners employed at some of the Bedworth collieries in North Warwickshire, giving way to a superstition which has long prevailed amongst their [-], refused to descend the coal pits in which they are employed. The men are credulous enough to believe that certain sounds, which are doubtless produced by flocks of night birds in their passage across the country, are harbingers of some impending colliery accident.

During Sunday night it was stated that these sounds, which have been designated "the seven whistlers," had been distinctly heard in the neighbourhood of Bedworth, and the result was that on the following morning, when work should have been resumed, many of the men positively refused to descend the pits, and were to be seen on Monday idling about the streets of the town.

The recent colliery accidents at Bedworth, and the "sounds" by which they are said to have been preceded, seem to have augmented rather than diminished this superstitious belief.

The Merthyr Telegraph and General Advertiser for the Iron Districts of South Wales, 2nd October 1874.


A paragraph has been going the round of the papers during the past week, which seems to us to be a striking illustration of how not to deal with the industrial aspect of popular superstitions. It is said that the miners at the Bedworth collieries in North Warwickshire, refused to go down the pit one day last week because certain sounds, known as "the seven whistlers," had been heard the night before; and the paragraph adds that "they are credulous enough to believe that these sounds, which are doubtless produced by nocturnal birds in their passage across the country, are harbingers of some impending colliery disaster."

Now it seems to us that the believers in these mysterious "nocturnal birds" are even more credulous than the colliers. What nocturnal birds are there  which make noises in their passage across the country at night? If there are such birds, is the early September their time for migrating? And if so, did anybody see them on the night in question so as to be able to say that "doubtless" the sounds proceeded from them. The penny-a-liner's explanation is doubtless a figment of his own dogmatism.

It is obvious to any scientific man that these noises are worth inquiring into if they are really heard at all. Colliery accidents arise from the escape of compressed gases, and there are some states of the atmosphere in which those gases show a greater disposition to escape than others. Now it is by no means impossible that when the sudden lightening of atmospheric pressure which favours colliery explosions takes place, these imprisoned gases may expand, and a singing or whistling noise is exactly the sound which would probably accompany such expansion.

It seems to be admitted that the people did hear "the seven whistlers" before the last colliery accident in the district in question; and if so, it is by no means impossible that their perception of the connection of the noises whith the condition which favours accident is a true one though their explanation of the noises is as absurd as that of the newspaper reporter's "night-birds." The matter is, at anyrate, worth inquiring into. Earth noises due to the escape of vapours are quite as common as "flocks of night-birds," and may give a warning of the condition of the strata which it might be well to note and observe. --- Capital and Labour.

In the Burnley Advertiser, 10th October 1874.