The last part of the inquiry document, a summary from the official Inquiry Report for “Blantyre Colliery Explosion” of 1877. Transcribed by myself word for word for the first time appearing online, this particular end section summarises the all the inquiry’s findings, presented to the Government at Whitehall. SUMMARY “In summing up the causes conducing […]
Part of the introductions from the Inquiry Report for “Blantyre Colliery Explosion” of 1877. THE COLLIERY AND THE CHIEF STAFF “The colliery is called the Blantyre Colliery, and is situated at High Blantyre, in the Parish of Blantyre, Lanarkshire. The owners are Messrs. William Dixon (Ltd), Mr. J Mann Thomson being the managing Director of […]
What an interesting subject this is! The Scotsman on 24th October 1877, reported that “A preliminary meeting was held in the afternoon in the vestry of the Established Church, Blantyre, for the purpose of taking steps to raise a national fund on behalf of the sufferers by the High Blantyre Pit explosion. Provost J.C Forrest […]
I simply cannot imagine the horror the families faced on the days following 22nd October 1877, to identify the bodies of their loved ones. Pictured here, the bodies were slowly brought up and placed in a temporary mortuary, which became known as “The Death House”. One report in the Hamilton Advertiser describes “The bodies conveyed […]
I was saddened to learn that not all Blantyre people acted with good character after the mining disaster of October 1877. Mr Neil Douglas observed one of those unscrupulous individuals, when in the days after the pit tragedy in High Blantyre Mr Douglas, the colliery cashier has seen one of the bodies brought into the […]
The Story of the Blantyre Pit Explosion 1877 by Rev Stewart Wright 1885 published in the “Annals of Blantyre” The annals of our parish would certainly not be complete without some allusion to that catastrophe which so recently brought fish out if its obscurity into a sad prominence before the whole world, we mean the […]
Residents in Blantyre were treated at the Broadway Cinema in October 1957, of a re-enactment film of the Dixon’s Explosion. To celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the tragedy, the Broadway screened the film and the newspaper reports suggested in advance just how popular it was going to be. The extract from the Blantyre Gazette tells, […]