Explosion at Midland Iron Works

At 6.45am on Wednesday 7th December 1862 the main boiler at the Midland Iron Works factory exploded. At that time in the morning there would have been about 160 men and boys in the factory, the work was proceeding as usual until the tremendous sound of the large boiler launching itself forward into the mill was heard, and in minutes the whole places was in ruins. The force of the explosion ripped the roof off the main building sending red hot bricks along with the iron, slate and timber roof frame showering down on the men inside.

The few workmen who had the good fortune to be in a safe place just outside the works describe a scene curious in the extreme. Day had not broken at the time of the explosion, and immediately thereupon such a cloud of steam and dust spread over works as to create what was literally a “thick darkness”. Amid this darkness men and boys could be seen running to and fro in a bewildered endeavour to escape the danger which they supposed still threatened them but which in reality was over; outside a shower of red hot bricks were falling like meteors on the grass and the roads. This appearance passed away almost as suddenly as it had appeared. However, flames still burst from various parts of the works as the falling wood fell upon the plates of iron. The roar of the explosion was terrible but was quickly succeeded by a still more appalling sound – the shrieks and screams of the unfortunate men who were buried beneath the ruins.

The manager of the works, Mr B Hartley, had been at his post about an hour, he was leaving his office to go into the works as the explosion occurred. Having stepped under cover to avoid the shower of bricks and other missiles, he went immediately afterwards to render assistance to the large number of men who he felt sure must be injured if not buried under the debris. He shouted to the nearest men for assistance but they were paralysed with fright and were motionless. In Benjamin Sersby, John Ramsden, J. Wigfield and a few others he found men who has more presence of mind, and will unbounded zeal and courage the work was at once commenced. The condition of the injured was heartrending; at the west end many workmen had been buried under hot bricks which had ignited their clothes and others had been crushed beneath the weight of the falling debris.

The survivors worked quickly, and having taken steps to obviate any danger from the other boilers, they began to extricate the wounded and the dead. Of the latter there were five who had died instantly in the blast; their bodies were removed to the Butcher’s Arms, an adjacent public house. Three others died of their injuries shortly after. By one o’clock there had been seven death in total named as:-

• John Fitzgerald, puddler, 20, single
• Geo. Copley, labourer, married, one child
• William Carboys, roller, single
• Joseph Adams, puddler, married and a family
• William Cawthorne, roller
• John Cawthorne, roller John Ellis, roller

The injured are too many to name individually; however, nine of them were sent at once to the Masbrough train station and conveyed by train to Sheffield where they were removed to the General Infirmary.

Doctors Clarke and Reed and Messers Darwin, Saville, Crowther and Stone, Surgeons, were in attendance and rendered all the assistance that medical skill could devise. However, several of the men who survived were so dreadfully injured in various ways that little hope was entertained of their recovery. A large number of the 300 workmen employed at the works resided in the immediate locality; and half clad women and men in their skirts hurried to the place to learn the extent of the catastrophe. A brief interval sufficed to relieve the agonising suspense of those whose relatives and friends were engaged at the works. Large numbers, however, continued to flock to the scene during the whole day.

Such devastation so close to the centre of Rotherham demonstrated very clearly the dangers of the industry around which the town thrived. Although medical care was provided, the facilities were not ample enough to care for the numbers injured nor to provide the speedy intervention which could have been life-saving. From this catastrophe came the movement towards installing a proper hospital within the district of Rotherham; the hospital went on to save many lives in subsequent industrial accident. Out of this fearful explosion came the development of a new age in healthcare for the people of Rotherham.

• Founding
• Development Progress
• Introduction to the Wards
• The History of the Hospital