120th Anniversary
Communities rocked by tragedy as miners are killed in pit disaster
OVER the years the Herald - serving as it does an area stretching from Moodiesburn to Bishopbriggs where coal-mining was for much of last century a major local industry - has sadly been no stranger to disaster.
From the days when man first went underground to hew coal the miner's job has been a dirty, dangerous and demanding one.
 Auchengeich Colliery - scene of disaster in 1959 |
So it is no wonder that coal-mining and the accidents which befall those who do it have always been a highly emotive subject. And never more so than in the aftermath of disaster.
The date is Sunday, August 3, 1913. In a pit near Cadder, about three miles from Bishopbriggs, 26 men on nightshift were working underground when fire was discovered.
Three managed to escape; the rest were entombed. By the next day, rescuers discovered one of the trapped men still alive ... and 22 dead.
This was how the Herald of August 6, in a page devoted almost entirely to the story, reported on the disaster:
''The happy immunity from catastrophe which the mining localities around Glasgow have enjoyed for such a long period was tragically broken on Sunday night when disaster befell the men employed in a pit near Cadder, belonging to the Carron Company. Fire was discovered at Pit No. 15.
''No such disaster has taken place in the history of the colliery, although the ill-fated pit has been in operation for 30 years.
''The scenes in the vicinity of the disaster were of a most tragic and harrowing nature.
''The members of the rescue party cannot be too highly praised for their heroic work. Far more men volunteered their services than were required.
HEROISM
''A number of canaries played an important part in the search for the bodies, being carefully watched when being carried along the passages from No. 17 pit and when they exhibited signs of being overpowered by the noxious fumes, the men were thereby warned that they were getting into danger.
''Meanwhile, the wives and other relatives of the 23 entombed men had gathered around the pithead and many touching scenes were witnessed as the night closed in and disheartened news came from the pit.''
The Herald reported that Dr Miller from Bishopbriggs worked with the rescue party from 10pm on the Sunday until two o'clock on Monday afternoon.
And there were other sad tales of heroism to tell - like the fate of one miner Charles Riley, who could have escaped but ran back to tell his comrades about the fire and lost his life doing so. Like the others who dies, he was suffocated.
''Many of the bodies were swollen and disfigured by fire and the task of identification was thus rendered somewhat difficult,'' the Herald said.
A detachment from Fife and Clackmannan Coal Owners' Rescue Organisation travelled through the night from Cowdenbeath to join the rescue bid at Pit 15.
 No 17. Pit Cadder - connected to No. 15 Pit where fire broke out in August 1913 |
One man had a remarkable escape. Having fallen face downwards, then covering his face with his hands, he lay for 15 hours until the Cowdenbeath squad reached him.
The crowding events of such a disaster - the worst pit tragedy in Scotland for 26 years - made reporting difficult. Information came in snatches.
But it was recorded that, presumably while awaiting the arrival of the rescue team from Fife, the Cadder miners made three attempts to reach Pit 15 by going down the neighbouring Pit 17 then trying to make their way along the connecting passageway.
They were twice beaten back by smoke, but the third time they reached their objective ... and found five bodies.
The impact of the tragedy on the mining community must have been enormous. Thirteen of the men who died were married, all with families. The Herald reported that 45 children had been made fatherless.
The funeral procession, involving Catholic victims of the Cadder Pit disaster, at Lambhill. |
With the quick compassion of their kind the Cadder miners lost no time in setting up a relief fund to help the dependents of the victims.
But the disaster brought forth anger too. And the question was asked about why the Glasgow coal owners had no rescue organisation of their own but had to fetch one from 60 miles away.
The funerals of the Pit 15 victims were covered in the Herald of August 13. Seven were buried at Cadder Cemetery with the cortege wending its solemn way along the back of the canal.
Eleven more were buried in St. Kentigern's Cemetery after a Mass in St. Agnes' RC Church, Lambhill. Others were buried at Lambhill and Riddrie cemeteries.
In the same issue, the Herald reported that there was to be an official inquiry into the disaster, about which questions had already been asked in Parliament.
Sadly it was a local pit which again became the scene of tragedy on an even more horrendous scale in September 1959.
The pit was the 50-year-old Auchengeich Colliery at Chryston and the disaster, in which 46 men lost their lives, was the worst to hit a Scottish mine in 70 years.
The cause was fire, a fierce wall of flame behind which the 46 were trapped in the underground workings. In a desperate attempt to subdue the fire and make some rescue attempt possible, the blazing section of the pit was flooded. But to no avail.
Hours after the first hint of disaster, all hope for the trapped men was abandoned.
The Herald of September 23, 1959, listing the death roll, included the names of dead miners from Chryston, Lennoxtown, Stepps, Kirkintilloch, Condorrat, Mount Ellen, Muirhead, Gartcosh, Auchinloch, Waterside and Bishopbriggs - the finger of tragedy had touched all in the area.
The funeral procession, involving Protestant victims of the Cadder Pit disaster, at Lambhill making its way to Lambhill Cemetery. |
''News of the tragedy spread throughout the colliery and was soon reaching the outside world,'' the Herald went on.
''Immediately crowds of people flocked to the pithead from the surrounding districts, among them were wives and other relatives.
''There was also a flow of volunteers to the pit, most of them Auchengeich miners who had come off the earlier shift or who were due to start work in the afternoon.
''Ministers and priests from the neighbouring parishes and from beyond were soon at the pithead and to do all that lay in their powers.
SPEEDY ARRIVAL
''The Salvation Army also did grand work and had a mobile canteen on the spot in record time.
''Many distressing scenes were witnessed as relatives arrived at the scene of the disaster. Ministers and priests moved among them offering comfort. Crowds of sightseers congregated and police were kept busy ensuring they did not encroach overmuch.
''The crack rescue team from Coatbridge Central Rescue Station were rushed to the scene. Their speedy arrival raised hope.
'If anybody can get them out, this team surely can,' one miner told the Herald. But the position was hopeless as time after time the rescuers were driven back.''
Like the earlier story of the Pit 15 disaster at Cadder, the Herald's report and those in other newspapers, tried hard to convey the deep feeling of grief and of loss, not just among the relatives, but in the community at large.
But words can only do so much and where they fail, the heart takes over . . . because grief is for feeling, not for telling. And disaster underground whether to five men or to 50 has always been beyond the confines of the printed page, a thing of gut emotion.
Nor has the catalogue of disaster diminished in more recent years, even though the number of working pits has shrunk considerably.
In 1982, on Wednesday, January 27, an underground build-up of methane gas created a fire-blast at Cardowan Colliery near Stepps, in which 41 men were injured, many of them seriously.
The blast, which happened soon after 9am, trapped miners working four miles from the pithead and 1800 feet underground.
They had to crawl through a three-foot tunnel to reach safety and most came out with their faces and bodies badly burned.
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