VICTIMS OF THE OAKS COLLIERY DISASTER 1847

The author's paternal great grandparents, Charles Ernest Hardy and Edwin Hall Bailey, both worked in collieries in the Barnsley area as did their descendants. At the end of 2017 author Jane Ainsworth transcribed a ledger containing the minutes of the Colliers' Relief Fund Committee of the 1847 Oaks Colliery Explosion for Barnsley Archives. This stimulated her empathy with and curiosity about the lives of the people referred to in the Minutes, widows, orphans and a few survivors of the disaster as well as the 73 victims. Despite the challenge of limited early records, she fleshed out the stories and pays tribute to the families of mineworkers whose lives at the time were considered of little value to the colliery owners and managers. She has created a memorial book like no other and a contribution to Barnsley's mining heritage. She has researched dozens of images which are reproduced to the best possible quality given their age, many woodcuts, images of graves and newspaper articles to tell the story of Richard and Thomas Beardshal, Francis Birtles, Robert Hazle (Hessle), William, William, John and Luke Roe (Wroe) from the family who suffered the largest loss of life with four members killed in the explosion on 5th March 1847. For each there are details of who they married and in which church, how many children and how intertwined the families were and how widows like Rebecca Roe (1804-1881) would have struggled to support her family, even with relief from the Subscriptions Fund. She returned to Alfreton with her children to avoid the threat of being admitted to Barnsley Union Workhouse, but she suffered another three deaths there. Also includes hand drawn maps and early views of Barnsley in etchings. 270 page large softback.