Deep Drop Pit - Stanley, UK - Mines on Waymarking.com

Welcome to STANLEY MARSH LOCAL NATURE RESERVE

Stanley Marsh is a green oasis amid the hustle and bustle of daily life. This small nature reserve, with its shady woodland, open wetland and wildflower meadow, was first opened to the public in 1984. It was designated as a Local Nature Reserve in 1989. A circular walk around the well-marked path is approximately 1 km.

History
The oldest detailed map of the area of the Marsh is of about 1794, which shows a number of fields where the nature reserve is today. The area continued to be shown as fields on Ordnance Survey maps up to the 1930s. It was only after the Second World War that clogging up of the surface water drains, and probably some subsidence from coal mining, combined to cause shallow flooding. So the name 'Stanley Marsh' is a modern one.

In Roman times the River Calder appears to have been embanked at Stanley to allow farming, and Roman coins have been found in the embankment. Lime Pit Lane, the road running along one boundary of Stanley Marsh, is an ancient road, although it derives its name from kilns in which was burnt limestone brought here by canal and horse-drawn railway. Spa Fold Cottages were named after a medicinal spa that was situated where the nature reserve's hut and car park are today. The spa water was discovered in 1826 when boring for coal to a depth of 80 yards. Dr Gilby of Wakefield wrote a pamphlet about the medicinal value of the ochreous water, and a building was constructed so that people could come to drink it and bathe in it. However, the spa was short-lived: the development of a colliery immediately adjoining it led to the spa water being pumped away.

The high point in the Marsh is in fact an old colliery spoil heap, where a pit was sunk around 1835. Known locally as Deep Drop Pit, the pit here was part of the new Victoria Colliery, which was typical of the large multi-pit collieries of its time, with several working shafts between Outwood and (later) Stanley Ferry.

Deep Drop Pit had its own pumping engine, with a castellated top as it was within view of the nearby Hatfeild Hall. Its foundations can still be seen just to the side of the path through the trees.

On 4 March 1879, a large underground explosion down the pit cost the lives of 21 men and boys, the youngest being only 12 years old. The explosion took place at night when around 55 people were working. Had it occurred during the day, some 250 men and 36 horses would have been down the pit. The explosion occurred on a seam being worked at a depth of over 400m, but was of sufficient force to expel a shower of coal, ash and debris up the ventilation shaft and into the night air.

The colliery closed soon after the fatal disaster.

The Deep Drop Colliery Disaster
You are standing on the site of the Deep Drop Pit, which was worked from around 1835 until 1879. Deep Drop got its name from being one of the deepest pits in the area, at 430 metres.

On Tuesday 4 March 1879, shortly after 10 pm, there was a loud explosion in the Deep Drop Pit. Some 55 men arid boys wet e working the night-shift at the time. All those working at the west end of the pit - 20 men and buys - were killed. The one injured survivor, David Noble, died in Clayton Hospital a few days later.

Those who died

Richard Atkinson	30	Coal getter	Married, 3 children
Eli Blackburn	30	Coal getter	Married
George Bolland	42	Coal getter	Married
William Colley	55	Horse keeper	Married
James Dolan	12	Horse driver
John Dolan	14	Horse driver
Thomas Farrar	14	Horse driver
Charles Firth	30	Bye workman	Married, 4 children
William Grice	37	Coal getter	Married, 8 children
Israel Hartley	25	Coal getter	Single
William Hartley	56		Married, 1 grown up son
William Jones	24	Coal getter	Single
James Leak	35	Night deputy	Married, 6 children
William Musgrove	17	Horse driver
David Noble
John Perks	16	Horse driver
Joseph Salt	34	Coal getter	Single
Luke Walker	43	Coal getter	Married, 8 children
Luke Waller	47		Married, 1 child
Andrew Wild	23	Coal getter	Married, 1 child
Charles Wild	38	Coal miner	Married, 7 children

At the inquest that followed, Mary Dolan, who lost both her sons in the explosion, gave the following evidence:

"My sons John Dolan and James Dolan are amongst those killed. John was 14 years old last birthday and James was 12. They were both horse drivers. They left home on Tuesday night together at seven o'clock. I was waiting there all day yesterday until half past five, at I could not see them until this morning. They were all I had, sir, to keep my home together (weeping bitterly), and went out to work when their father could not get it. Two fine boys as ever a mother reared. John's face is a bit hurt. My two sons, oh dear! Oh dear! Their lives are not insured. And I have not a farthing with which to put a clean shirt on them. John worked the pit about three years ago, and they have worked this last time about six weeks."