Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Monday 25 April 1898
Letter to Editor from T. O. Campbell (Conisborough).
Lundhill Colliery was sunk in 1853.
Feast Tuesday, August 22, 1854, five men were killed by an explosion of fire-damp, overflow of water having stopped the air current, and forced the gas into the chawing shaft, where it fired.
At noon, Thursday, February 19. 1857, the day of the Lundhill disaster, the pit fired again, the explosion blowing the cage out the shaft. The woodwork and coal caught lire. Nineteen men were rescued, and the same day the pit was made up to stop the fire.
On Wednesday, the 25th February, it was decided to flood the pit: on the 26th, a small stream running near the colliery was diverted, and the water turned down the shaft
On March 3rd. the water had risen sufficiently to exclude the air from the Barnsley seam:
On April 21st, water began to be pumped out;
On May 9th, a large number of bodies were interred at Darfield Church; other bodies were recovered;
On the August, a funeral sermon was preached in Darfield Church, by the Rev. J. Moorhouse. Sheffield.
The explosion caused the deaths of 89 married men, unmarried men and boys—186: leaving 89 widows and 190 orphans.
On the 15th May, 1858, the reopening of pit was celebrated.