Saturday 5th January, 2008
In 1751, R. Pocock, a traveller, visited the Wigan area. He commented on the "Canal (cannel) pits" found here:
"We crossed the moors towards Wigan and came to the Canal (cannel) Coal Pits; they told us they were forty yards deep. The work is called a delft or mine, the vein a drift, which is about three feet thick and dips from north-west to south-east about a yard in twenty..."
The most interesting part of his account is where he describes, in detail, the incredibly dangerous way in which the mines were tested for the presence of firedamp and the way it was cleared:
"How the 'Fiery Damp' was Cleared"
"They are much troubled by what they call fiery air. They know when it rises by the smell, and send down a person with a candle to try it, if it is dangerous they see a blaze from a candle near half a foot long. One man was so burnt with it that he died, and it raised blisters on his body."
Firedamp was indeed a great problem in the mines and caused many accidents. It was imperative, however, that the gas was cleared before work began.
This highly dangerous job was assigned to a miner known as a "fireman". Not surprisingly, many of these brave men were killed or badly injured.
In later times, firemen became responsible for safety underground and were answerable only to the underlooker or colliery manager. This is how James Corner, superintendent at Blundell's Blackrod Colliery, describes the job of a fireman in 1836:
"The duties of a fireman are to see that the air is properly circulated and to set the men to work in their respective places."
Eventually, with the standardisation of mining terms, firemen became known as deputies.
see also
James Taylor, (a fireman killed in the King Pit explosion, 1877)