Nabs Wood And Huskar Disaster of 1838 - Silkstone Common, UK - UK Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Nabs Wood And Huskar Disaster of 1838

What happened here in 1838
On 4th July 1838 from 2.00 pm until late in the afternoon a violent storm of thunder, lightning, rain and hail raged over Silkstone and Stainborough. The torrential rain caused flooding to houses in Silkstone and roads were blocked by fallen trees. In the Huskar Pit (House Carr Colliery) yard about 500 yards from here (see maps to the right and below) the fire in the furnace of the steam boiler which drove the winding engine at the top of the shaft was extinguished by the flood water. A message was sent down the shaft to all miners and children to put out all lights and wait at the pit bottom until they could be wound up by hand.

Unaware of the storm and the conditions at the pit top, 40 children made the fateful decision to make their way out of the workings by a day-hole or drift, which came to the surface in Nabs Wood. At the bottom of the drift was one of the air doors, used to control the flow of air through the workings, which the children went through. They were not to know that the small stream on the surface near the entrance to the day-hole had turned into a raging torrent. As the children made their way up the slope, the water from the stream, which had become blocked by debris, had to find a new course and poured down the drift to the air door in front of them, where it was dammed by the door and eventually, as they approached, burst through, sweeping them down to the door behind them, where theyt were trapped and 26 were drowned.

The children's bodies were taken to a barn at Throstle Hall (no longer there), which stood opposite Dodworth Moor End Farm (see map of 1838 on the right), before being taken to their homes by horse and cart.

Visiting the Memorial and Day-Hole

It is possible to walk right round Nabs Wood, now owned by the Woodland Trust, and to visit the site of the day hole. At the bottom of the steps is a memorial to the children who died showing a boy and a girl in the size of tunnel they might have worked in. If you continue up the steps and along the path, after about 100 yards ypu come to a place where the path divides in front of a large oak tree - take the right fork, and another 200 yards further on you will come to the site of the day-hole, which is a large depression in the ground on the left of the path, with wooden fencing around it.

DO NOT GO DOWN INTO THE PIT, IT COULD BE DANGEROUS.
THERE MAY BE GAS

If you continue along the path it will lead you round in a circle to where you started from. The whole walk around the wood is just over half a mile.

MAPS

On the left is a present day map showing the surroundings of Nabs Wood. Compare it to the map above, which shows what the surrounding area would have looked like in 1838. It has the line of the Silkstone Waggonway which opened in 1809 between Silkstone and Cawthorne Canal Basin, and was extended to Moorend Colliery and Huskar House Carr Colliery) Colliery in 1830. These two collieries as well as many others in Silkstone were owned by the Clarke famoly of Nobblethorpe Hall.

Nabs Wood

This is ancient woodland and contains a succession of wildflowers in spring including Lesser Colandine, Wood Anemone, Dog's Mercury, Bluebells, Wood Sorrel, Yellow Archangel and Wild Garlic. Many native trees can also be found including Oak, Ash, Beech, Birch, Scots Pine, Wych Elm, Holly and Hazel. It is also rich in bird life. As well as the features connected to the Huskar Disaster there are also earlier and later coal mining relics. Beyond the top of the first flight of steps on the left of the bend there are two banks of earth, which are the remains of a small mineral railway which ran to a coal mine of about 1900 date. On the opposite side of the track is a large mound of earth, which is colliery spoil. As you walk through the wood you will see other mounds and also some depressions marking the sites of bell pits, an early for of mining, which are probably several hundreds years old. You are advised to keep to the path and not to investigate any depressions in the ground as they could be dangerous.