Swaithe Main Colliery firedamp explosion
- When
- 1875
- Where
- Swaithe Main Colliery
- Episodes
- 1
On 6 December 1875, an underground explosion occurred at Swaithe Main Colliery in South Yorkshire. Of the 239 men and boys working underground, 143 died. This incident is recorded as the most disastrous mining event in Barnsley since the 1866 Oaks Colliery disaster.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. The Swaithe Main Colliery disaster occurred in the South Yorkshire Coalfield. The event is historically significant as the most disastrous mining incident in Barnsley since the Oaks Colliery disaster in 1866. A commemorative event marking the 150th anniversary was later held in St Thomas' Church in Worsbrough on 29 November 2025, though this falls outside the immediate scope of the 1875 incident.
Sources
- Swaithe Main Colliery disaster Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-18
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.