If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Call the Roll: A Compilation of Mining Disasters

by Peter C. Navin

213 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-1089; ISBN 1-4120-9335-x; US$20.85, C$23.98, EUR17.13, £11.99

Disasters in coal mines were frequent in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many miners were killed in one explosion, leaving behind their wives and children to live off charity (relief funds): not much compensation for their "Accidental Death".

About the Book

The disasters I have written about all come to the same conclusion of 'accidental death'. There were many more mining disasters all with the same ending. People who were and still are in mining know that mining history shows that colliery owners of the 19th and into the early 20th centuries would not spend much money on safety. A couple of weeks maybe days after a disaster, the colliery would be up and running. In some cases the same colliery would have another disaster stemming from the same conditions as the first. When an accident happened, a single or several miners killed it hit the colliery community hard. But what was it like years ago when 10's even 100's were killed in one disaster. The relatives depending on the relief fund for income.

About the Author

I was born in Burnley in 1947, this Lancashire Town was well known for its cotton mills, industrial factories and collieries. I qualified as a colliery electrician in the 1960's, working in the Burnley area's collieries. Hapton Valley, Thornybank and Bank Hall. When Bank Hall Colliery closed in 1971, I came to South Wales, working at Cynheidre Colliery until it closed in 1989.

Excerpts