Burns Pit Disaster

Pupils from East Stanley Primary School, which stands 100 yards from the Burns Pit site, recreated the inquest in the chapel at Beamish Museum’s colliery village on the ninetieth anniversary of the explosion with the help of the museum’s education team. The project, which involved the children in researching through the archives, writing character profiles and developing historically accurate speeches, was part of the National Literacy Drive.

“Most of the children knew of the disaster, it is one of those things which has become part of the local mythology,” said Headteacher Tony Blackett.  “They have put a lot of work into the project and thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Peter Lewis, a director of Beamish Museum, played the formidable coroner Mr Graham. The children kept as close as possible to the original inquest. They even left the chapel to visit the sickbed of an injured miner. Mr Elliott, an onsetter in the Busty Seam, had given is evidence to the jury at his bedside.

The children quickly established the background of their characters. Deputy Mark Henderson was played by Dean Little, whose great-grandfather had in the explosion. His first words described mining life in the Edwardian Era.

“I am 36 and I started work down the pit at 14.  I’m married with 14 children and I get paid £5 per week.”

One scene showed Mark Henderson and the survivors that he had collected, huddled together. They trapped in the Tilley Shaft, 800 feet below the ground.  Singing is helping to keep their spirits up.

A telephone rings through the dusty atmosphere.  Mark Henderson answers it and a voice asks if there are many survivors. “Aye, there’s 26 of us left. Can you get us out?”

The rescue team went down and brought them all to the surface.

East Stanley Primary School opened in 1892 and records reveal the great effect that the disaster had on the community.

“There is a great gap when the children were not in school because of what had happened to their fathers,” added Mr Blackett.  “There were also pupils who had recent left the school to work in the pit.”

The burns Pit has been closed and levelled. St Andrew’s Church institute is now a bustling small family centre. The original buildings of East Stanley Primary School were dismantled and rebuilt as part of the colliery village at Beamish Museum. The memorial to the tragedy stands on the site of the pit. These are the only visible signs of that day.

The memories are still burnt into Stanley’s soul.