Episode 1 of 4

Explosion at Oaks Colliery

When
12 December 1866
Where
Oaks Colliery, Hoyle Mill, near Stairfoot
Part of
Oaks explosion, 12 December 1866

Firedamp explosions killed 361 miners and rescuers at Oaks Colliery near Barnsley on 12 December 1866.

A series of explosions caused by firedamp ripped through the underground workings at Oaks Colliery at Hoyle Mill near Stairfoot in Barnsley. 340 men and boys were underground, including hewers, hurriers, and trappers. The disaster remains the worst mining disaster in England.

Sources

  1. Oaks explosion Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-30

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.