Elswick Cemetery, Montague Pit Disaster Memorial

HER Number:
5047

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Elswick Cemetery, Montague Pit Disaster Memorial

Place:
Elswick

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Commemorative

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Commemorative Monument

General Period:
Modern

Specific Period:
C20

Form of Evidence:
Structure

Description:
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.

Easting:
224

Northing:
636

Grid Reference:
NZ224636

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< 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