Catalogue description BENTLEY COLLIERY

On 20 November 1931, an explosion underground at Bentley Colliery killed 43 miners. The Mines Department held an official inquiry into the explosion at Doncaster over eight days between 29 December and 6 January 1931. The papers catalogued here were accumulated by E H Frazer, divisional inspector of mines based at Doncaster.

Records relating to the fund established for the relief of the widows and children of the victims are to be found amongst the records of the Bentley Urban District Council (Doncaster Archive reference : UD/BEN/2/2 - 3 and 3/39 - 46) and the records of Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council (Doncaster Archives reference: MB/LEGAL/2/8 - 14).

The disaster is the subject of a booklet by John Woodhead, The Bentley Pit Disaster, (Doncaster, Waterdale Press, 1991) based partly on the records catalogued here and partly on interviews conducted in Bentley in 1975. The document reproduced on page 36 is to be found at MQ/12/11 and a version of the plan (on a different scale) at MQ/12/6 below.