Sneyd Hill

Coal mining in the Sneyd area of Burslem had been ongoing since the 18th century. Records show that at 1896, Sneyd No. 2 and Sneyd No. 3 had a combined total of 609 men and boys working underground with 124 people employed upon the surface. The company was officially registered as Sneyd Colliery in 1900. By 1940, the mine was being worked by 2,000 men and boys when it was recorded that they were idle as an underground fire had been discovered. The mine, like many others, had suffered deaths before such as in 1904 when a fire broke out and killed three workers.

Due to an old superstition that said the cutting of coal on New Year's was unlucky, miners traditionally did not work on New Year's Day; but because of the war effort, the men of Sneyd turned out to work a normal day. 295 men were working in No. 4 pit which was 0.5 mi underground. The force of the explosion was powerful enough to blow men off their feet; one apprentice, Reg Grocott (16) was blown around a corner and his trajectory was stopped by a water drum. The man he was working with was not so lucky having been thrown against a wall and killed. All other workings were unaffected by the explosion, but all miners were evacuated from the No. 2 pit and the other areas of No. 4 pit.