| Nationality | Baddesley Colliery was sunk in 1850 in an area of Baxterley Common after the Stratford Dugdale family had acquired the land and mineral rights of Baxterley Hall in 1848. The ceremony of Turning the First Sod was performed in May 1850 and two shafts, known as the Stratford Pits, were sunk.
By 1876, the reserves in the Ryder Seam were diminishing, and it was necessary to work coal in a new area down the dip. Water in the new area had become a problem, and various methods of removing it had been tried but proved unsuccessful. A consultant mining engineer, Mr Gillett, was brought in. Gillett had previously specialised in this area and recommended that a self-contained engine boiler was placed in the return airway at the extreme deep of the workings which supplied steam to work a small engine to pump the water up the incline. Gillett specified that the boiler should be placed on a brick platform, and a brick archway should be built around it. Mr Parker, the manager, had the boiler installed but the brick archway was never built. The boiler had only been alight for a short time when the miners noticed the coal above the boiler was starting to glow red.
On 1 May 1882, Joseph Day, a deputy, was going to relieve his father, Charles Day. As he descended the upcast shaft, he encountered thick black smoke. He met his father at the pit bottom and told him about the smoke in the shaft. Charles Day immediately went up the shaft to see for himself and sent for Mr Parker. Eight men and a boy of 13 were doing repairs in the deep workings at the time. Charles and Joseph Day tried to reach them, but they were unable to go down the incline because the smoke was too dense. Parker arrived at the pit bottom with some other men and made several attempts to penetrate the smoke but found it was impossible.
The owner of the colliery, William Stratford Dugdale of Merevale Hall, and the agent, Mr Pogmore, had been sent for. It was decided that the assistance of a local mining engineer, Reuben Smallman, was required. Smallman, after familiarising himself with the underground layout of the colliery, devised schemed to drive the smoke from the mine. All efforts were driven back by the smoke and fumes, and several men were overcome. Fresh volunteers were called for and Mr Dugdale had gone down with the rescue party. Although he did not know anything about the procedures, he believed that his presence would aid the confidence of the men and lead them to greater efforts to save their fellow workmen. At about 8.30am an enormous explosion of coal dust occurred, which caused flames to rush through where the men were working. Most of the rescuers were badly burnt, and those who were not hurt too badly helped the others to get out.
Arthur Stokes, the Assistant Chief Mining Engineer arrived at the pit shortly after the explosion and met Smallman who was so badly injured that he was barely recognisable. Smallman told him what had happened and that it was believed that there were still three men down the pit, including Mr Dugdale. Stokes agreed to go down and rescue the men, despite Smallman's warnings that the condition of the mine was dangerous. Stokes and a team of volunteers succeeded in bringing the men out alive, but all died later as a result of their injuries and breathing the noxious fumes. Twenty-three of the rescuers died from their injuries, including the owner Mr Dugdale, his agent Mr Podmore, the manager Mr Parker and the underviewer Mr Clay.
After a consultation the following day it was decided that the nine mineworkers trapped in the pit would no longer be alive and that the only way of extinguishing the fire and saving the colliery was to seal the shafts. The pit remained sealed until November 1882 when the covering was removed. The bodies of the trapped miners were recovered in 1883 and 1884, however the body of the 13-year-old, Joseph Scattergood, was never found. The area of the deep workings was bricked off and never worked again. The final death toll of the Baddesley Colliery disaster was thirty-two.
A third shaft was sunk in 1897 in response to the increasing demand for coal. During the first hundred years of its existence, Baddesley Colliery had produced coal from the Two Yard (Ryder) Seam. After nationalisation in 1947, the production of coal became more mechanised, and coal was produced from four different seams: Two Yard, Nine Feet, Seven Feet and Bench.
Baddesley Colliery continued to be modernised under the National Coal Board. The first armoured face conveyor was installed in 1952, and in 1958 underground locomotives were introduced. The steam winders were replaced by electric winding engines in 1955 and 1961. In 1962 a new coal preparation plant was opened. In the colliery's later years, a new lamp room and a computer-operated belt control room were brought into commission.
In 1988, Baddesley Colliery began to experience geological problems and productivity fell to such an extent that it was losing £300,000 per week. It closed in 1989 with the loss of 650 jobs. A number of the mineworkers transferred to Daw Mill Colliery, but many took early retirement or redundancy. |
| Source | Fretwell, L. (2005) 'Baddesley (Stratford) Colliery', The Warwickshire Coalfield, Vol. 2, pp. 74-121.
Northern Mine Research Society. (n.d.) 'Warwickshire Coalfield'. [online] Available at: https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/warwickshire/ [Accessed 30 March 2020].
Parton, C. (2013) 'The Baddesley/Baxterley Pit Explosion 1882' [online] Available at: http://www.baddesleypitexplosion.co.uk/index.html [Accessed 22 March 2021].
Warwickshire County Record Office, CR3166/1/3.
Winstanley, I. (n.d.) 'Baddesley Colliery Explosion - Atherstone - 1882' [online] Available at: https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/accidents-disasters/warwickshire/baddesley-colliery-explosion-atherstone-1882/ [Accessed 22 March 2021]. |