In October 1874, at the ceremony for turning the first sod of earth to start the sinking of two shafts for the Micklefield pit, Mr. Joseph Cliff, senior partner of the Micklefield Coal and Lime Company, expressed his earnest wish that the works begun that day might prosecuted and completed without the slightest accident to life or limb, and that a spirit of respect and union might at all times prevail between employers and employed.
[6] Ventilation was drawn through the seams by a Waddle fan at the top of the Upcast shaft, and had removed the eleven instances of small escapes of gas since 1891.
[7] Men worked with picks by the light of tallow candles, whilst the undermanager and five deputies carried safety lamps.
The 105 men entering the pit on 30 April were datallers, and miners wanting to achieve greater productivity for the next paying day.
[11] The explosion was caused by a slight fall in the roof in Goodall's gate, on the West side of the mine, 943 yards from the Downcast shaft.
[12] A small quantity of fire-damp escaping from the crack in the roof was ignited by a miner's candle at 7:15am, just as the men were starting work.
The explosion travelled south, down New North Road against the air flow, as coal dust dislodged by the explosion carried the dull flame beyond its point of origin, and expanded into a roaring flame when it reached the air in the West Level main intake, and then continued to expand through the mine, killing miners and trapping them, as roofs fell.
[13] The explosion ripped through the office, killing the Underground Manager William Radford and a deputy, and other miners and brakesman who were positioned nearby.
The sound of the explosion reaching the surface was described as like the boom of a cannon,[14] and was heard at other villages within a six-mile radius, such as Crossgates, Stanks, Garforth, South Milford, Sherburn, and by a cyclist at Bramham.
Of the 81 men in the pit who survived the explosions, only 42 managed to reach the surface alive, as many miners were trapped by roof falls and succumbed to after-damp poisoning.
Rescuers retrieving the bodies described how the miners’ footprints in the dust could be traced showing the roads they had travelled along in an endeavour to escape before they were overwhelmed.
They were very quickly rendered unconscious for an hour by after-damp, and upon waking, the Deputy, Robert Henry Nevins, was asked by the young teenage miners to pray for them.
Peckfield Colliery Manager, Charles Houfton and Garforth Colliery Manager, Robert Routledge, both arrived at Micklefield from Garforth at 8:50 am, and assisted by Samuel Clough they descended the No.2 shaft, and with a little maneuvering they got the cage past the obstruction and got down to the Beeston Seam, and began to help the survivors out of the mine,[19] including Fred Atkinson.
Doctors Griesbach, Abbott, Gaines, Radcliffe and Carr were soon in attendance from surrounding villages to help revive both the rescued miners and some of the rescuers who were brought out of the mine suffering from the effects of after-damp.
[22] The bodies of miners began to be removed overnight: 29 were recovered by Friday night, and a further 26 on Saturday, including William Naylor Whitaker who was brought out alive at 2:30pm, and attended to by Dr. Sydney Griesbach and Dr. John Scott Haldane, but died at 10pm in Leeds General Infirmary.
[28] At the inquest to the disaster on Wednesday 20 May 1896, the jury returned the verdict: "We are unanimous that the explosion was caused by gas, and was purely accidental, and that no blame is to be attached to any person."