1940s Staffordshire

Staffordshire Sentinel, Saturday 1st January 1994
 Disaster as Miners Defy Superstition
It was 52 years ago today [1942] that North Staffordshire's last major pit disaster occurred at Sneyd Colliery, where 57 men and boys died on the blackest New Year's Day in Potteries history.

Normally, nobody would have been down the pit that day. But because of the need for coal during the war, the men went to work in defiance of an old mining superstition about working on New Year's Day. At 7.50am a violent explosion ripped through the pit bottom 800 yards below ground, killing miners working in the Banbury seam of No 4 Pit. Large roof falls blocked the roadways and the whole area was filled with choking dust.

It was January 9 before the last body was recovered from the shattered workings. Many Potteries families were bereaved, but some of those who died were wartime Bevin Boys who had come to the area from other parts of the country. Amazingly, four days after the disaster, 79 per cent of the colliery's miners were back at work underground, even though many bodies were still lying in the affected part of/ the pit.

The official inquiry reached no definite conclusions about the cause of the explosion. But there was little doubt that a major part was played by runaway wagons on an incline. A wheel became entangled in a rope pulling empty wagons in the opposite direction. The resulting friction ignited coal dust in the air. And in that split second catastrophe struck. The tragic even on January 1, 1942, is recalled by Fred Leigh in his new book "Most Valiant of Men" which traces the history of the North Staffs mines rescue service and describes a number of local pit disasters.