South Yorkshire Times, December 16th 1932.

Sinister Month

The topic of the week-end in my village (writes a correspondent) was the tragedy at Cortonwood.

An old collier of the candle-in-cap days told me he was always glad to see December out, for it was not only the darkest month of the year, but the most dangerous.

As proof of this he gave me a list of December pit accidents with a total loss of more than eight hundred lives. The worst of them was the Old Oaks explosion On December 12th and 13th, 1866, in which 361 lives were lost. Then there was Swaithe Main, December 6th, 1875 (143 dead), Warren Vale, December 20th, 1851 (52), Elsecar, December 21st, 1851 (9), Edmunds Main, Worsboro’ Dale, December 8th, 1862 (59) and the Houghton Main winding accident on New Year’s Eve, 1886, which cost a dozen lives, as well as disastrous fires at Monk Bretton and Denaby Main which did great damage though they cost no lives.

My friend, like so many other philosophers, was inclined to establish a mystic connection between these tragedies and the brightness of Christmas, and to suggest that light must have its shade. Certainly sadness at this season is more deeply felt and remembered.