Methley Junction

Benjamin Burnley commenced sinking in 1845 and the pit started to produce coal in 1851. In the early 1900’s severe flooding problems were experienced and as a result the shafts were altered and the pit was used for ventilation for Whitwood and Savile mines and also manriding for Whitwood. One notable feature was on closure the pit was the only one in the area to have wooden headgear. Rail connection was to the Methley curve on the North Eastern Railway and was by a steeply graded incline - see photo. Burnley sold the colliery to Briggs & Co in 1859. Information source R. Rockett

Methley Junction Explosion

On Thursday, December 9^th 1875 an explosion occurred in the mine workings belonging to Messrs. Henry Briggs, Son & Co. killing 5 men and 1 boy. (A brief report of the explosion and the names of those killed can be found in the book Methley 2000 by Jim Melvin).

Approximately 100 hundred years later a group of surveyors from Savile were travelling through the old Methley Junction workings and came across the following poem of the explosion written on six sheets of old notepaper.
Reproduced here from a copy held by Peter Bell.

1 Pay attention people far and near 2 It was at Methley Junction
   I shall not detain you long under Messrs Briggs and Co
   Whilst in these few lines I do relate and it is the first explosion
   to the old and young that we ever did there know
   I am myself a miner On the ninth of December
   and I am in duty bound The men rose in their bloom
   to comment upon that explosion they went to their daily toil
   which happened underground. not thinking of their doom.

3 At half past ten the roof fell down 4 The longwall deputies
   which deprived them of their lives quickly did volunteer
   They have left their orphan children Not thinking of the fierydamp
   Likewise their weeping wives which they had to fear
   The worthy steward James Tupman With all speed they ran along
   his name I cannot withold they did not hesitate
   He quickly ran into that place Until they arrived within that place
   with heart so brave and bold. but alas they were too late.

5 Not one man they found alive 6 Next I must comment upon the bank
   I am sorry for to tell where people quickly ran
   That cause of the explosion Some lamenting for their fathers
   Was the heavy roof that fell their husbands or their sons
   Life is uncertain but death is sure It was a painful sight to see
   Sin is the wound but Christ is the cure The people ran with speed
   The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh who had a friend in that shaft
   Blessed be the name of the Lord. It made their poor hearts bleed.

7 There was a poor woman that could not run 8 Messrs Briggs and Co
   She was too lame and old A fund they did propose
   Her only son was in that place To subscribe for the widows
   Its true so I am told To find them food and clothes
   She is put upon the widows fund A miner in the meeting
   although she were a wife boldly stood up and said
   I hope it will support her We must gather for the widows
   the remainder of her life. Cause the poor men are dead.

9 If it should be opposed 10 This is the last verse I shall write
   and should not be carried out and in it I must say
   The Union will support them hope the souls of these poor men
   Of that I am sure, there is no doubt to heaven went straight away
   It is the best thing in the world and there forever may they remain
   and in it all men should be with angels round the throne
   It demands fairation in our land and meet all their wives and children there
   and defies all poverty. with the happy home.

Evictions 1863
A printed poster on view at the National Mining Museum at Caphouse Colliery describes the dreadful state of industrial relations in and around Methley at this time. This was a situation brought about by adverse trading conditions at the time, subsequent cost cutting steps imposed by the mine owners (Briggs’) and the resulting hardship suffered by the coal miners involved and their families in Methley and the adjacent Whitwood. The poster (appended below) was in the form of a plea to the general public to understand the position the miners had found themselves in and the actions that were being taken by the owners.

The build up to the dispute began in the June of that year when the men, having had to accept a reduction of seven and half percent on wages refused a later request to riddle (screen) the coal before filling the tubs.
As a result of this refusal the men were then locked out having also refused to sign not to defend each other (form an association with representation).

One witness writing to the Leeds Express reported seeing hundreds of men and women along with their furniture being ejected from their homes at Common Row, Whitwood. The bailiffs in this work being guarded by a strong force of police armed with cutlasses.
Similar action was taking place in Methley as extracts from the churchside school logbooks reproduced in Jim Melvin’s book Methley 2000 confirm:-
   16th July - All the pits are closed, strike likely to prove serious.
   15th Sept - Mr. Briggs the coal proprieter has turned parents and children out of
   his houses and great destitution has been caused.
   17th Nov - Increase in attendance as some colliers return to work.
   25th Nov - Effects of the strike still very detrimental.
   11th Dec - Colliers working much better.
   5th Jan - The colliers are now returned to regular work.

Of equal significance to the melodrama described by the poster is the postal address of the Committee of Locked-out Colliers which was the Bay Horse Inn, Methley. From this we can deduce that the pub was more than a watering place. As meetings were taking place there (as they did right up to the 1970’s) it was clearly becoming one foundation of the developing Miners Association. After failure in earlier years by the Chartists to secure representation and organisation for workmen from the top downwards, it is possible to see that association developed from the bottom and the Bay Horse at Methley would be a factor in the development of early representation for miners. The structure of the later Yorkshire Miners Association and then NUM was certainly an amalgamation of like groups.

One is left to wonder if Samuel Poppleton the landlord of the Bay Horse at this time could have envisaged the role of his public house towards that end. Doubtless he would have simply been pleased to get the business of those thirsty colliers in his premises.