Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Bank Colliery Medal 1866, a superb 65mm., silver medallion by Ottley, Birmingham, obverse: draped bust of Queen Victoria, left, in high relief; reverse: within a wreath of oak and laurel is engraved, ‘Presented to Adam Eckusley, by the Little Hulton Relief Committee, for his heroic conduct in rescuing at the risk of his own life, his fellow Workmen at the Bank Colliery Explosion, Decr. 10th 1866’, nearly extremely fine and rare £800-1000

Ex Glendining’s, March 1976; Dix Noonan Webb, December 2003.

‘On the afternoon of the 10th December, 1866, a fearful explosion occurred at the Bank Hall Collieries, resulting in the loss of 5 lives and serious injury to 20 other persons. The mine, which is about 350 yards deep, is worked by two shafts - an upper and a down-cast, the first being situated in the northern side of the workings, extending along which is a road nearly 200 yards long, denominated the ‘down-brow’, and declining very rapidly, leading into the Cannel mine. Situated at a distance of 150 yards from the top of this brow, and leading off to the right, is a wagon road, at the end of which is a large bay, and here it is surmised that the explosion took place.

About 150 men and boys were employed in the mine, and these resumed their daily avocations on Monday morning at six o'clock. About 2:00pm, a number of the men resolved to cease work for the day and were making their way to the pit eye to join some few others who were already there waiting to be wound up to the surface, when an extensive fall of roof occurred in the open bay above mentioned, and a loud explosion immediately followed. There were about 7 men and boys working in the bay at the time, and they had only a few minutes previously been warned by the usual cracking noise, which invariably precedes such an event, that a fall of earth was about to take place, and proceeded to prepare for it by removing their tools. Some of them saw the flame, and instantly threw themselves on the ground with their faces downwards, but they were all shockingly scorched. The gas and sulphur rushed in a stream up the pit brow, carrying some of the men with it by its violence, whilst others fell on the ground and lay by as if dead from its effects. A number of men at the bottom of the shaft, waiting their turn to ascend, were more or less burned, and another set of men who were engaged further up the workings narrowly escaped suffocation, having to scramble over the injured bodies of their fellow workmen, unable to assist them, in order to make their escape.

The report of the explosions was heard by persons in the neighbourhood of the pit, and they were alarmed by perceiving an immense volume of smoke issuing from the mouth of the north shaft, and large stones and pieces of coal projected a great height into the air. As soon as it was safe, several parties descended the pit and found a number of wounded men strewn about in all directions. They were quickly taken to the surface, and within an hour all of them had been removed.’ (The Bolton Chronicle, 15 December 1866, refers).

Adam Eckusley was born at Mid-Hulton in 1828, and awarded the Bank Hall Colliery Medal for his gallantry in assisting with the rescue parties following the explosion on 10 December 1866.

The Bolton Chronicle of 22 December 1866 gave notice of a committee being established to receive subscriptions and distribute the funds collected. It is assumed that some of these funds were subsequently used for medals to the rescuers mentioned above. Eckussley’s medal is the only award to date to have appeared on the market.