Felling mine disaster
- When
- 1812
- Where
- Felling Colliery (Brandling Main); Sunderland
- Episodes
- 2
On 25 May 1812 the Felling Colliery (Brandling Main) suffered the worst of its four 19th-century disasters, killing 92 miners. The explosion prompted safety-lamp development and the founding of the Sunderland Society later that year.
Episodes
- Explosion at Felling Colliery
The first explosion struck at 11:30 on Monday, 25 May 1812, killing 92 miners in the worst of Felling's four disasters.
- Founding of the Sunderland Society
On 1 October 1812 the Sunderland Society was set up, bringing together clergymen, doctors, owners and mine managers.
Background and detail
Background. The Felling Colliery, also known as Brandling Main, first worked the High Main seam, which ceased production in 1811. Shortly before that seam was exhausted, the pit was deepened to reach the Low Main, which came into production in May 1811, a year before the disaster. The colliery had a steam engine for winding gear, with a standby horse-whim available in 1812 when the steam engine was out of use.
The Explosion. At 11:30 on Monday, 25 May 1812, the first explosion occurred at the colliery. This disaster was by far the worst of the four that struck Felling in the 19th century, claiming 92 lives.
Aftermath and Response. The loss of life became one of the motivators for developing miners' safety lamps, including the Geordie lamp and the Davy lamp. Public interest was fed by a short 16-page pamphlet written before the second disaster in late 1813. On 1 October 1812 the Sunderland Society was established, consisting of clergymen, doctors, owners and mine managers.
Sources
- Felling mine disasters Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-11
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.