This morning, as with each year on this particular day, we remember the 215 men and boys who sadly lost their lives in the Blantyre Pit Disaster. At 8.45am on 22nd October 1877, a huge explosion caused by fire damp occurred in Pit 3, also significantly affecting Pit 2 in High Blantyre. Deep below the […]
This week, as we approach the 145th Anniversary of the Blantyre Pit Disaster, as usual, we’ll be exploring some new and further stories and accounts of the tragedy and remembering the miners who died. On Monday 22nd October 1877, the following men made their escape from No. 2 Pit in High Blantyre immediately after the […]
The concluding part of the story by Keir Hardie. Published in a Labour Newspaper from 1909, it tells a story around the Blantyre Pit Disaster of 1877. In this final part, continued from Parts 1 and 2, Keir writes about a rare rescue: “Meanwhile the scene on the pithead was one of woe and desolation […]
This is the tragic story of one of the miners who lost his life in the Blantyre Pit Disaster of 1877. James Brodie, was the son of John Brodie (shepherd) and Mary Turnbull. Born in 1851 in Lanarkshire. Coming to Blantyre between 1871 and 1874, the timing fits well with new opportunities for coalminers being […]
William Boyle was born in Ireland around 1828. His parents were Hugh Boyle and Rose Ann Gallagher. William married Helen (or Ellen) McDonagh in 1860 at Airdrie and became a coal miner. The 1861 census shows Helen and William living at 1 Clarkston’s Land, Coatdyke, Old Monklands with children Rosy 13 and Mary 3 months. In […]
Blantyre Pit Disaster – 142nd Anniversary At 8.45am tomorrow morning (22nd October 2019), it will be exactly 142 years since the 1877 Blantyre Pit Disaster, which sadly killed 215 men and boys. (Updated on Blantyre Project from 207 previously thought to have died). That terrible explosion, still to this day Scotland’s worst mining disaster occurred at […]
Here’s my researched story of another miner who died in the 1877 Pit Disaster. The Gold family members time in Blantyre was short lived and extremely tragic. John GOLD was born in 1849 in Old Cumnock, Ayrshire, the 6th child to John Gold senior and Lillias Swan Clarkston. The large family lived at 22 Craig […]