Trimdon Grange Colliery Disaster Memorial

Summary

Colliery Disaster Memorial, 1882, by G Ryder & Sons.

Reasons for Designation

The Trimdon Grange Colliery Disaster Memorial, of 1882, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a tall and attractive Gothic design in the form of a spire with intricate decorative detailing;
* it displays good-quality materials and craftsmanship and creates a prominent landmark within the cemetery in which it stands, and in which many of the dead were interred;
* it has good quality and well-detailed carved scenes in low relief, depicting aspects of miners' life and death.

Historic interest:

* it commemorates a major Durham coalfield mining disaster in 1882 in which 74 men and boys died, and stands as a tangible expression of the hazards inherent in England's later-C19 coal mining industry.

History

The Trimdon Grange explosion was the second of a series of major blasts to hit the Northern Coalfield in the 1880s and occurred only 18 months after the great pit disaster at Seaham. It took place in the afternoon of 16 February 1882 when about 100 men were working 250m underground. As news of the accident spread quickly, miners from Trimdon and surrounding villages arrived at the colliery to assist in the rescue. Over four days about 26 survivors were brought out of the mine, and the remaining 67 men and boys were found dead. The explosion blasted open a door separating Trimdon and Kelloe Colliery resulting in the deaths of six men at the latter. Many of the bodies were interred together at Trimdon's East End Cemetery and others were buried at Kelloe, Cassop-cum-Quarrington and Shadforth. The disaster is recorded in a song by pitman poet Tommy Armstrong. An inquiry failed to reach a definite conclusion as to the cause of the explosion. The memorial was commissioned by fellow workmen and friends to commemorates the men who died, and was built by stonemason G Ryder. It was erected in 1882.

Details

Colliery Disaster Memorial, 1882, by G Ryder & Sons.

MATERIALS: sandstone ashlar with granite shafts.

Description: the Gothic monument stands about five metres high. It has a shaped base supporting a square pedestal which has a moulded plinth and cornice; there are capitals on corner shafts framing a panel to each face. This is surmounted by a high, tapering, octagonal spire, with blind tracery and leaf decoration on alternate panels, and a cross finial bearing the inscription I H S. The spire rests upon a square block which has scenes carved in low relief on all sides, and has flower and beast decoration. These represent a miner walking to work, an injured miner being rescued from the pit, a grieving widow at her husband's grave and a scroll with clasped hands inscribed with the word 'FRIENDSHIP'.

The Gothic-shaped panels on the pedestal bear inscriptions incised in Roman letters which read: on the north face of the dado and pedestal: IN MEMORY OF / THE 74 MEN AND / BOYS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES BY THE EXPLOSION AT TRIMDON GRANGE / COLLIERY / THURSDAYFEBRY16 / 1882 / THE FOLLOWING / FORTY FOUR OF WHOM ARE HERE INTERRED. The names and ages of those who died are inscribed on four panels on the dado of the pedestal. Incised in Roman lettering on the north pedestal base: ERECTED / BY THEIR FELLOW / WORKMEN AND FRIENDS / AS A TOKEN OF THEIR SINCERE / RESPECT /G. RYDER & SONS / BP AUCKLAND.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

112280

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Usherwood, P, Beach, J, Morris, C, Public Sculpture of North-East England, (2000), 277

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