Huskar Pit

The workers stranded at the pit bottom were instructed to remain there until they were able to be brought up to the surface, but a number of children decided to try and escape via the dayhole to Nabs Wood.

A nearby stream had burst its banks in the rain and a torrent of water entered the shaft, drowning 26 children aged 7 to 17.

Nationwide, the disaster shocked public opinion, and the resulting inquiry led to the 1842 Mines Act which sought to introduce some protection for child miners and meant that all girls and boys under the age of ten were prohibited from working underground.

In 2008, to mark the disaster's 170th anniversary, the event and subsequent inquest were turned into a play [4] by Sylvia le Breton and performed by the local Grass Roots theatre group in Silkstone church.

The Kate Rusby song "Halt the Wagons", from her 2019 album Philosophers, Poets & Kings, references the tragedy from the point of view of a grieving mother.