Story
Henry Slade Childe was born on 4th April 1861 in Eccleshill, Bradford. His father was a Merchant who owned warehouses, Joshua Childe (1837-1893) and his mother was Jemima Eliza Slade (1836-1912). They married in Jemima’s home church in Hampton, Middlesex on 1st February 1860, and then returned to Leeds Road, Eccleshill, and although they did move back to Middlesex for a short time, they were predominately based in Yorkshire, with Henry completing his education at Wakefield Grammar School. Henry’s grandfather, Joseph Childe (1793-1863) was a colliery agent, and Henry’s uncle Rowland Childe (1826-1886) was a Mining Engineer. Aged 15 in 1876, Henry began training and learning from his uncle Rowland as a mining student, and lived at their home, Brice Hall House in Wakefield. In 1881, Henry began inspecting Peckfield Colliery. In 1883, Henry qualified in Mining from Yorkshire College, Leeds, and received a certificate from the Home Secretary to act as a Colliery Manager. Henry continued to work for his uncle, inspecting various local mines, ironworks and reservoirs, until his uncle died on 30th July 1886, leaving the modern equivalent of £1.4m in his Will. Henry took over Rowland’s business and home of St John’s Villa, 3 Wentworth Drive, Wakefield, where he employed a cook and a domestic servant. On 8th October 1886, Henry was proposed to the Institution of Civil Engineers, replacing his uncle. One of his backers was Arnold Lupton, who was also in attendance with him at the Peckfield Colliery disaster. Henry was admitted to the Institution after a ballot on 11th January 1887. He ran Childe and Rowland Co., Wakefield, acting for a number of owners of coal royalties in Yorkshire, and consulting engineer to several railway companies. On 7th November 1887, Henry joined the Freemasons, Lodge of Unanimity, in Wakefield as a Mining Engineer, later becoming a Grand Deacon of England. John Gerrard, Inspector of Mines had also joined the same lodge on 1st April 1878, and was also in attendance at the Colliery Disaster, and at other mining accidents. On 9th April 1889, Henry married Kate France (1859-1945) daughter of a Mill Owner, Henry France.
Due to the nature of his work, Henry was no stranger mining disasters. On 18th October 1883, he attended the Wharncliffe Carlton pit disaster which claimed 17 lives after the ignition of a safety lamp reacted to firedamp gas an triggered an explosion. Arnold Lupton was in the pit at the time, and survived the disaster. On 4th July 1893, Henry was in attendance at a mining disaster at Combs Pit, Thornhill, Dewsbury, which killed 139 coal miners. Once again, and as with Peckfield, this was caused by an ignition of a small accumulation of gas by a naked light, with most miners killed by the resulting afterdamp gas poisoning. Only 7 miners survived. It remains the worst disaster in West Yorkshire’s history. The Peckfield Colliery disaster is the second worst.
Henry arrived at Peckfield Colliery at noon, and led several of the rescue parties, as he descended into the mine on the day of the disaster, again on the 2nd May and 4th May. In his testimony at the Inquest, Henry stated: “The explorations were carried out under considerable difficulty but every assistance was afforded by the owners and surviving officials. In my opinion there must have been a slight escape of firedamp from a fall perhaps slight in the roof. I have not seen any dust beyond a film on props in the Beeston bed here. The coal is hard. I had not any occasion to find fault with the management. I have known this colliery since the year 1881, having had to repeatedly inspect the mine on behalf of the North Eastern Railway company. Since 1884 I have acted on behalf of the Lessor of the colliery and as such have made careful inspections of the colliery with a view (1) of seeing that the colliery was properly worked, and (2) ascertaining the quantity of coal got from time to time, and this entailed the careful examination and surveying of the roads and faces of the coal mine. I was last in the mine in August last but up to that time I had been dozens of occasions in each year. As to the result of any inspections at Peckfield Colliery I have always considered it a safe pit and one in which I saw no objection to the use of naked lights, nor did I ever see or hear of any explosive gas being found therein. Nor have I, in any part of the mine, observed any deposits or collection of coal dust. With regards to the question of naked lights, the Beeston Bed at Micklefield is not at all a gaseous seam, and the general condition of the pit is such as to secure the highest degree of safety. The report books show a singular absence of reports of the finding of gas in any material quantities, in every instance only very slight quantities were reported, which were removed at once and there was less in this than is found in the average pit. The reports did not in any way give an indication of danger, so as to point out any necessity for discontinuing the use of naked lights. With regard to similar pits using naked lights, the following occur to me in the immediate neighbourhood of Leeds, viz: Wheldale colliery, Warrenhouse coal; Waterloo main colliery, Silkston coal; Wood’s Foxholes colliery, Haigh moor coal; Fryston colliery, Haigh moor coal; and Acton Hall colliery, Warrenhouse coal. On the other hand there are several pits similar to this, which use safety lamps, but I differentiate them and Micklefield on the following grounds: (1) the Beeston bed at Micklefield is not gaseous, and this is proved by the fact that gas has only been reported 11 times in the last five years, and on each of these occasions the quantity was small and was quickly and easily removed. The last occasion upon which gas was found is reported in the inspection book to have been in December 1895. As to the question of firedamp it is of value to note that the whole time of the explorations no explosive gas was found in the mine. This will be confirmed by all the explorers who tested for gas in the ordinary way with a safety lamp, and Mr. Wilson one of H.M’s inspectors also tested by means of Stokes’s alcoholic lamp which will show the presence of gas to half of 1 percent, (2) the air roads and air courses of Micklefield are particularly good, the current being 78,000 cubic feet per minute with an average velocity of [left blank] feet per minute and an average water gauge of only 7/10 of an inch, (3) the maximum number of men in the mine at one time was 250 with 23 horses equalling 69 men, or a total of 319, which divided into 78,000 equals 244 cubic feet of air per man per minute in a non-gaseous mine, (4) the system of working the coal is pure longwall, and opening out of fresh coal was extremely gradual, (5) there were no old pillars of coal worked a long way from the wind roads, (6) the air was taken right on to the “men’s backs”, (7) so much of the mine as lies South of the East and West level would be termed damp, whilst the part to the North, although drier, could not be called dusty, (8) the pit was worked in single shifts, and this large quantity of the air was constantly creeping through it, and any gas that might have appeared from the newly cut coal would be carried off for 14 hours when no-one was in the mine opening out a fresh surface. With respect to the cause of the explosion the first examination I made of the mine on the 30th ult. caused me to form the opinion that the main force had proceeded from West to East to the downcast pit bottom and there the force had divided and gone North, South and East and partially up the shaft. The explosion therefore had arisen or started on or in some road running out of the West level and proceeding on that level and in all the gates or roads opening out of it. It was clear that the force had gone down the 4 places to the Dip and up two to the Rise. This holds good until we reach the New North road which is the farthest road on the West level. Here the force appears to have come down the road from the face, and this is the only case of such an occurrence. Proceeding at the road there are many indications of this, but the damage is not very heavy and although there are in two cases slight signs of coking upon the props and also upon a board, there has evidently only been a small flame and concussions here. At the mouth of Goodall’s gate, there are indications that a force and flame have come along that gate and divided themselves, one part going down the gate against the fresh air coming in and the other going up towards the faces but with a lesser degree of force. This has led me to conclude that the explosion originated in Goodall’s gate, and this view is confirmed by the severe injuries which George Henry Whitaker had received just before death and the position of his body. It is more than a probability that he had gone inbye with his pony and left it in New North road at the gate and while he went on passed no.1 gate and beyond the fresh air current to perform a natural operation and that then by means of his naked light he fired a small quantity of firedamp at Point “A” on the plan. This would of course cause an explosion, probably in itself a slight one, and the line of its progress would be as is generally the case against the fresh air and out of the gate end and there is further proof of this by the spreading of the force and the position of the body of the horse which had been at the gate end and lifted bodily to the far side of the road by some power. The explosion of this firedamp was then in all probability nearly exhausted but the resultant concussion had unfortunately puffed up or disturbed a small quantity of coal dust that had gathered on the props bars and sides and floor of the road and this coal dust was fired by a sharp initial flame which is necessary to ignite it, such sharp initial flame having come from the explosion of the firedamp previously referred to at point “A”. The inflamed coal dust would then, in my opinion, proceeded down the New North road in the form of a slowly developed dull flame and in proceeding would disturb and absorb fresh coal dust and by time it reached the West level would then burst out into a long dull report. This report would cause a greater concussion and would stir up fresh coal dust which existed in the West level which is a main intake. Another explosion would then occur, the direction of it being towards the downcast shaft. When it reached the fresher air at that point it would burst out again into flame, and this would account for the evidences of burning on the tails of the horses in the stables and on all the bodies found around the pit bottom. The explosion has then partly spent itself in the shaft but not quite as there must have been a further explosion as four bodies were found burnt about 627 yards from the junction up No.1 Rise bord. There probably has been a further explosion in No.1 Dip which would account for the burning of George Edward Dunnington whose body was found 473 yards from the junction, and in this road much damage has been done. The damage in the New North Road is not considerable, nor is there any considerable damage North of point “A”. Near the West Level there are heavy falls.”
In 1901, Henry was living on Blenheim Road, and employed 4 servants. He continued to work as a mining engineer, and by 1911, he had moved to Potterton Hall, in Barwick in Elmet (pictured below left), and employed 6 servants. His friend Arnold Lupton also lived in Barwick. His son Derrick Francis Childe (1897-1915) was killed in the Great War, and Henry became Chairman of the Barwick in Elmet Memorial Committee. The War Memorial (below right) was unveiled in 1920 by Henry’s wife, Kate.
Henry was chairman of the Yorkshire Railway Wagon Company Ltd, a Justice of the Peace for Wakefield, President of the Wakefield Cricket and Bowling club, and belonged to the Yorkshire Geological Society and the Yorkshire Archaeological Society. He was also Mayor of Wakefield in 1901, 1904 and 1905. Henry passed away on 6th July 1925, aged 64, after a two-month illness, and had been living at the Briory, in Harrogate. He left £20,598 14s 9d to his widow, about £876k in modern terms.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 