The Mauricewood Colliery Disaster, occurred at the Mauricewood pit, near

Penicuik Penicuik ( ; sco, Penicuik; gd, Peighinn na Cuthaig) is a town and former burgh in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the west bank of the River North Esk. It lies on the A701 midway between Edinburgh and Peebles, east of the Pentland Hills. Na ...

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

on 5 September 1889. A total of 63 miners were killed. At the time the mine was owned by the Shotts Iron Company Ltd.

Fire and rescue operation

On 5 September 1889 at around noon sections of the wood lining of a ventilation shaft ignited and the ensuing fire spread to a nearby coal seam, making an escape on the 239m deep main shaft impossible. At that time 70 men and boys were working underground, of which 63 died and 7 survived. The underground fire took four days to extinguish. It was not until 16 March 1890 that all the bodies of the victims were recovered.

Aftermath

The cause of the fire was never determined although it led to the pit being closed which caused major losses to the two local railway lines, the

Penicuik Railway The Penicuik Railway was a railway line in Midlothian, Scotland, serving paper mills located on the River North Esk. It opened in 1872 and a substantial residential passenger traffic built up. The line was 4 1/2 miles long. Passenger usage fel ...

and the

Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway The Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway was a railway line south of Edinburgh, Scotland, built primarily to serve mineral workings, although passenger trains were operated. It is also known as the ''Glencorse Branch'' of the North British Rail ...

. A memorial to those lost their lives was erected on the centenary of the disaster in 1989 and stands just off Mauricewood Road.

References

{{coord, 55, 50, 30, N, 3, 13, 30, W, region:GB, display=title Coal mining disasters in Scotland Coal mines in Scotland 1886 mining disasters 1886 in Scotland History of Midlothian 1886 disasters in the United Kingdom