Tyne and Wear HER(5047): Elswick Cemetery, Montague Pit Disaster Memorial - Details
5047
Newcastle
Elswick Cemetery, Montague Pit Disaster Memorial
Elswick
NZ26SW
Commemorative
Commemorative Monument
Commemorative Monument
20TH CENTURY
Early 20th Century 1901 to 1932
Structure
Tall covered cross, unveiled on 6th June 1926, with the Good Shepherd on one side and a miner on the other. Designed and executed by William Curry of Birtley. Memorial to the Montague Pit Disaster which took place at View Pit, Scotswood (HER 4059) on 30th March 1925. 38 miners were killed {1}. On 30 March 1925 there was a disaster at Montagu View Pit in Scotswood. Water from the adjacent disused Paradise Pit flooded the workings, drowning many miners. It took seven weeks to remove the first body from the mine, and five months to remove all of them. 38 men and boys were killed and 13 pit ponies. The main funeral was on 24 May 1925. 50,000 people lined the road. The Montagu View Pit never reopened and later a cattle market occupied the site.
422400
563600
NZ422400563600
<< HER 5047 >> Pers comm. I. Ayris, 1999, Montague Pit Disaster - Memorials; Alan Morgan, 2004, Beyond the Grave - Exploring Newcastle's Burial grounds, pp 46-47; Roy Thompson, 2004, Thunder Underground - Northumberland Mine Disasters 1815-65, p 31 and 50