The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #136643   Message #3121985
Posted By: bill\sables
26-Mar-11 - 11:09 AM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: The Burns Pit Disaster 1909 (Bill Sables)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BURNS PIT DISASTER 1909 (Bill Sables)
I got a few facts wrong in the last post; It was on 16th February 1909 and thirty miners got out.
I have, however, found the origional words.

THE BURNS PIT DISASTER 1909
(Bill Sables)

In Stanley town in 1909
On a Tuesday afternoon
Thirty lives from a pit were saved
But many more had met their doom

It was in the second month of the year
All upon the sixteenth day
When a blast occurred in the Burns pit
And one hundred and sixty-eight passed away

The families who thronged the pit-shaft head
Shed many a bitter tear
Then the telephone rang from the Tilley Seam
Saying "There's twenty-six still alive down here"

They had heard a bang and the lights went out
And a cloud of dust had appeared
So they ran for the safety at the end of the seam
And there they sat and they sang and prayed

A rescue team went down next day
For to see how things did stand
They were met with the sight of their workmates bold
Lying dead with their picks and their shovels in their hands

A few days passed and the burial came
And the mourners lined the way
They were laid to rest in two mass graves
All hundred and sixty eight who died that day