The Ackton Hall Colliery Riot of 1893

 Compiled by Irvin Saxton

TROUBLE BREWING

The coal mine owners wanted a reduction in wages, the miners refused, so a strike/lockout began on July 29. For a few weeks all was quiet as both sides sat it our waiting for the other to give way first. Then, as the owners refused to budge, there were rumblings among the more militant miners, especially about selling coal from the surface stocks.  On September 4 the Yorkshire Miners' Union sent out a circular saying "Our officials hope that the same good conduct will continue. We do not think that violence of any kind will do our cause any good. We look to our local officials using every effort to prevent illegal action".

Until Tuesday September 5 nothing had happened at Featherstone to cause alarm. On that day some men were loading small coal (called slack) into railway wagons from heaps that had accumulated in the yard. This had gone on for three months, beginning before the lockout, and continuing through it every day.  Between noon and 1pm a crowd of men, women and boys went into the pit yard and insisted the loading of slack stopped. At the same time a large number of colliers armed with cudgels went to Featherstone Main Colliery demanding the men filling slack should cease work. After an angry discussion with the manager, Thomas Thompson, this was agreed.  Miners also went to Snydale Colliery to persuade the surface men to stop loading coal. The workers got wind of what was happening and seeing the men approaching, many with cudgels, they took to their heels.

The next day a crowd gathered early at Ackton Hall Colliery and again prevented the loading of slack. William Henry Jacques, the foreman in charge, was told to go home by the ringleaders. He did this but was attacked at his home and his house windows were broken.  Alfred John Holiday, agent to Lord Masham, arrived at 9am and met representatives of the miners who told him what had occurred was without their knowledge or consent, and they regretted it very much. They stated however there was a very strong feeling among the miners about the sale of slack. Mr Holiday agreed to discontinue the sale of slack for a few days but said it must continue for colliery use. The deputation was satisfied with that and the loading of slack for colliery use only was resumed, but with a different gang of workers, the original men being too frightened to continue.

A mass meeting of miners was held that day on the green adjoining the football ground. Charles Cranswick, the Snydale checkweighman, presided and urged the men to refrain from violence so they would not lose the sympathy of the public who were providing soup kitchens. A voice from the crowd shouted "Why, soup is nowt but watter", and another said "The dogs won't eat it".  The checkweighman congratulated them on being able to stop work above ground, and recommended a visit to the collieries to see what was going on below. They would not allow slack to be filled any longer. A resolution to stand firm was carried unanimously.

An Express comment on the state of affairs so far was "The district of Featherstone is completely dependent on the earnings of the colliers, and already many of the inhabitants are feeling the pangs of hunger".

THE SITUATION WORSENS

On Thursday morning September 7 Mr Holiday arrived at the colliery to find a crowd of about 200 people gathered. They had sticks and cudgels and accused him of breaking the agreement about selling slack. Mr Holiday said slack had only been loaded for colliery use. It is possible the crowd had been misled by old destination labels for Bradford (for Lord Masham's mills) which had not been removed from the wagons.   More people arrived to swell the crowd, and egged on by the women, who seemed more militant than the men, they turned their attention to the wagons. The women overturned one as an example and the men then turned over another six. Two wagons were set off down and incline and wrecked. The crowd then dispersed.

There was normally a police sergeant and four constables at Featherstone, but two of the constables were helping out at Doncaster races, leaving only Sergeant Sparrow and constables Wise and Whittaker to keep law and order. So when yet another crowd gathered, armed again with sticks and cudgels, Mr Holiday drove to Pontefract to ask for more police protection. He was told by the acting deputy superintendent there were nearly a dozen telegrams asking for similar aid and there was absolutely no one to send. Mr Holiday was advised to see the chief constable at Wakefield. 

Mr Holiday returned to Ackton Hall Colliery where he found the crowd engaged in emptying wagons of coal that had been standing in the sidings since before the lockout. He did not recognise any Ackton Hall miners among them but he did recognise some Featherstone miners who worked at other collieries. He then left on the noon train for Wakefield.  Mr Holiday repeated his request for police protection but he was told because of the number of West Riding police (259) sent to Doncaster none were available to be sent to Featherstone. Lord St Oswald was asking for protection for Nostell Colliery, but as no police could be sent it was agreed to ask for military aid.

THE TROOPS ARRIVE

The first request for troops was sent to York but none were available, so the chief constable wired to Bradford for 50 infantry to be sent to Westgate Station to be split between Nostell and Featherstone.    On his return to Ackton Hall Colliery at 2pm Mr Holiday found many office windows had been broken but otherwise all was quiet, although there was still a crowd of about 200 miners, miners' wives and pit boys outside the pit yard.

At 3.35pm Captain Digby Barker arrived at Wakefield with a lieutenant and 53 men. The troops were provided with Lee-Mitford rifles and 80 rounds of ball cartridges each but no blanks, the regulations not permitting the use of blanks in such circumstances.  Captain Barker did not at first agree to his men being split into two groups, but on being told it was absolutely necessary he sent the lieutenant and 25 men to Nostell and the remaining 28 accompanied him to Featherstone. Police Inspector William Edward Corden and two Wakefield constables were also sent with them. They arrived just after 4pm to be met by about 20 jeering men, but at the colliery there was neither crowd nor disorder.

According to William Smith Gill, deputy chief constable, Charles Clay, a magistrate, should have met the troops at Sharlston, and if there was no trouble there go with them to Featherstone. Mr Clay later denied this saying it was agreed he should go to Sharlston Colliery and await the troops there. This he did, so the military arrived at Featherstone without the services of a magistrate.

ENTER THE TROUBLEMAKERS

Although the need for the troops had now passed it was thought desirable to retain their services all night. Captain Barker took his men into the colliery yard and stationed them on the third floor of the engine house until a magistrate arrived. That floor had a door to the pit hill (a raised platform where the tubs were taken on and off the cages) so the men could stretch their legs. It also had a commanding view of the pit yard.

At about 6pm Mr Holiday was told a crowd had gathered at the Green Lane entrance and was asking to see him. He found a considerable number of men and boys, but he considered not Ackton Hall workers, some carrying sticks. A deputation came forward and asked for a pledge he would not fill any more slack. He told them of the promise he had already given, and when requested to do so repeated it to the crowd.  While this was going on a body of up to 300 men and youths from the Sharlston area led by a man ringing a bell marched up Station Lane and turned into the pit yard. On arriving they smashed every window they could find, and when faced by Mr Holiday they demanded the removal of the police and troops. Mr Holiday said he had no power to remove either. The mob didn't like that and although the spokesmen tried to keep them back they gathered round Mr Holiday and threatened to kill him.  Inspector Corden said he would take the police to the railway station if the crowd would agree to disperse. He began to edge through the crowd taking Mr Holiday with him when someone shouted "What about the soldiers". Mr Cordon replied he had no power over the soldiers, whereupon a shower of stones chased them to the station.

It was now dusk, and in the engine house Captain Barker could hear the mob shouting for the soldiers. When they discovered where they were all the doors and windows of the engine house were smashed in. Six men armed with sticks went up the stairs and demanded Captain Barker should leave and take his men with him. They said they meant to have the troops away, and if they did not come down they would be carried down. One of the men took a flame lamp to some sacks at the bottom of the stairs and attempted to set them on fire.

Realising the crowd would not back down, Captain Barker asked if he took his troops from the colliery premises would the crowd go away. This was agreed, so at 7pm the troops came out of the engine house, went out of the pit yard by the Green Lane entrance, and marched down Station Lane to the station. They had to pass piles of burning timber and flaming barrels of oil in the pit yard, and the crowd in Green Lane was so thick they had difficulty getting through.  PS Sparrow had attempted to arrest one of those responsible for the fires, but he had been assaulted by the mob. The bellman and his supporters followed the troops to the station and remained there for another 20 minutes before marching off down Station Lane.

MR HARTLEY ARRIVES

Mr Holiday tried for about an hour to get Pontefract exchange on the telephone in order to phone Bernard Hartley JP, but in the end he had to send a pony and trap. The troops waited at the station until Mr Hartley arrived just before 8pm. By now large fires were burning out of control and Mr Hartley and the troops left the station and advanced across the pit yard towards the Green Lane entrance. They halted some distance from it and were faced with a crowd estimated by Captain Barker at over 2,000.

The joiners' shop and the wagon repair shop were now on fire as well as the stacks of timber, and the glow in the sky had brought people from the surrounding area to see what was happening and consequently swell the crowd. Over the next half-hour or so Mr Hartley made six appeals to the crowd to disperse, but to no avail, and both he and the troops were continually stoned. Finally at 8.40pm Mr Hartley read the proclamation from the Riot Act by the light of a lantern. This Was: "Our sovereign lady the Queen chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations or to their lawful business upon the pains contained in the Act made in the first year of King George for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the Queen".

For a short while there was silence then the hooting and stone throwing recommenced, worse than before. Mr Hartley and Captain Barker came to the conclusion they would have to clear the yard. The soldiers fixed bayonets and advanced towards the Green Lane entrance with the crowd falling back before them. The troops entered Green Lane and turned left, driving the crowd in front. When they reached the wooden bridge they turned round and cleared the ground from the road towards the Featherstone Hotel (then under construction by Carter's Knottingley Brewery Company.) However the people returned as the soldiers passed by so the troops were brought back into the yard and lined up to face the Green Lane entrance.

PONTEFRACT FIRE BRIGADE ENTERS THE AFFRAY

There was no Featherstone Fire Brigade so Pontefract Fire Brigade was asked for assistance. The fire engine and hose cart left Pontefract with one horse pulling each. At Purston both horses were attached to the hose cart and sent on, and the engine was pulled by hand until the horses returned. Thomas Main drove the hose cart into Green Lane with sticks and stones thrown at him. He then took the horses back for the fire engine and was threatened by some of the crowd as he made his way out of Green Lane; but others said leave him alone as it was nothing to do with him. The engine was also attacked with sticks, stones and missiles from catapults as it travelled down Green Lane, and all the firemen were injured.

THE TROOPS OPEN FIRE

The soldiers were now being stoned from the front, both sides and the rear, and the situation was considered by Mr Hartley and Captain Barker to be critical. The troops could not hold the ground where they were, and to withdraw would leave the colliery at the mercy of the mob. At about 9.15pm Mt Hartley decided there was no alternative to opening fire and he gave Captain Barker a written order to that effect. Mr Hartley asked for blank cartridges to be used but Captain Barker said they did not have any.

Mr Hartley then asked Captain Barker to fire as little as possible, so one soldier was directed to kneel and another to stand behind him. Mt Hartley said in a low voice, but heard by an Express reporter, "For God's sake don't hit anybody". The word of command was "At the mob in front, at the ground line, present, fire". One of the soldiers was struck in the face just before he pulled the trigger. Nobody seemed to have been hit, although later Sam Hobbs claimed he was injured by one of these bullets.

For a few seconds there was silence, but with a shout of its only blanks the stone throwing resumed. After a few minutes the captain lined up eight soldiers in two ranks of four and ordered them to fire. This time there were many casualties. Joe Blaydon came out of the crowd waving a white flag and showed Mr Hartley a bullet wound in his thigh. The stone throwing ceased and there was an uneasy truce.  The drawing below is from the Illustrated London News and shows the troops opening fire. Note the inclusion of a woman and barefoot child to give a dramatic if untrue effect. 

 RELIEF FROM THE BARRACKS

At about 10.30pm the new pitch pine bridge in Green Lane, which had been erected at a cost of £300 to cross from the colliery to the brickyard, was set on fire as was the wooden fencing in Green Lane. The troops were left in peace in the pit yard. They were relieved about 11pm by Captain Ottley with two officers and 80 men of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry from Pontefract. Captain Barker took his men away leaving the pit yard still a mass of flames. Captain Ottley's men stood with fixed bayonets the rest of the night to prevent further fires being lit, and at 1am the next morning the crowd began to disperse.  The last of the fires was extinguished by 4am, and at 6am Captain Ottley estimated 30 or 40 adults and the same number of boys were still hanging about. A further 100 men of the KOYLI's and the York and Lancaster Regiment were paraded at Pontefract Barracks, but they were not required.

That morning (Friday) an Express reporter visited the scene. He wrote "After the battle yesterday the scene in the pit yard was awe-inspiring to a degree. Approach was not possible without passing a double sentry of soldiers. Hugh masses of charcoal pointed to the scene of the conflagration and the sight of the burnt bridge testified to the destructiveness of the rioters. Everything was confusion confounded. One of the main objects of the military force in protecting the more valuable portions of the plant about the headgear and engine houses had been accomplished, but everything else was complete desolation".                                                                   

THE AFTERMATH

Another crowd gathered before noon and there was an intense feeling of revenge with rumours the men intended to have blood for blood. There was talk some men had obtained revolvers, with Mr Holiday a prime target. However, a tremendous thunderstorm broke out and most people left to seek shelter. At 3pm a crowd collected near the brickyard and set fire to a pile of sleepers they had arranged round four railway wagons. Captain Ottley persuaded the gathering to leave and Mr Holiday sent for the colliery locomotive to pull the wagons clear. The fire was put out with water from the colliery.

That was the end of the trouble at Ackton Hall Colliery, although the soldiers and police stood guard for some days. The damage was estimated at £1,900. This was out of a total cost of the colliery to date of £130,000. It could have been worse. Mr Holiday had taken the precaution of covering the shaft tops with thick battens. When it was all over he found two tubs had been pushed from the top landing with the intention of them going down the shaft, but the battens had prevented that happening.