Looking back with Ian Scott on a miracle during the Redding Pit Disaster

On September 25, 1923, one hundred years ago, Redding No 23 pit was flooded by a huge inrush of water trapping 66 men. Only 26 survived. Next week I will write about these tragic events but today I want to recall one of the few joyous moments in the whole sad story.

Following the early morning accident a huge rescue operation was mounted and within hours 21 men had been brought safely to the surface. As the days passed with no sign of life the waiting families began to lose all hope. But deep below ground five men huddled together in the wet, cold and damp with limited air and suffocating black damp all around. After a number of days the rescue teams heard noises and began to slowly blast their way towards the trapped five.

This week I have had the great pleasure of spending an hour or so in the delightful company of Mrs Dorothy Crawford whose father John Miller at 22 was the youngest of the five. She was born a decade after the disaster and recalled that her Dad hardly ever spoke about his experiences. But on one occasion he did tell her of the moments when the five men realised that they were trapped with no food beyond one slice of bread which they divided into five on the first day.

It was so cold and damp that they needed to huddle together to try to survive. The water was not far from their place of safety and John remembered going each day to place little stones at the edge of the water so that they could estimate how fast it was rising or retreating from them. Unlike the other four John was not a miner by long experience. He had only joined the workforce a year before, having been a barber in Falkirk. But with a wife and new baby to support the colliery offered better pay and more security. Each day he walked all the way from Falkirk to the pit and home at his shift’s end.

In their dank prison the other men listened to James Jack tell stories of trench life in Flanders during the war. He made them laugh and sing and helped keep them full of hope. They could hear the explosions as the rescuers struggled through to reach them and counted 13 by the time they heard voices. It was the 10th day of their ordeal. The first thing they did in the moment of joy and relief was to sit and light a fag!

For the waiting families the safe delivery of the five was a miracle. John refused support and walked unaided to the waiting ambulance. It was the end of his career down the pit. He returned to work in R and A Mains in Camelon and Dorothy said that although he lived to the age of 64 his health was poor and that was put down to those terrible days entombed.

When I watch the new memorial unveiled I will think of John and of Dorothy whose memories have helped me to feel a real connection with these tragic events of a century ago.