A Naylor lamp stamped “M H C Co”, and Wigan’s worst pit disaster
A few letters punched into brass, and a whole story opens up.
This is an old J.H. Naylor of Wigan lamp with what Andy calls a bi-fold burner. “M H C Co” is stamped on the brass ring and the burner plate. That’s the Moss Hall Coal Company, owners of the ill-fated Maypole Colliery at Abram, near Wigan, and of nearby Low Hall Colliery, which had eight shafts.
Maypole, 18 August 1908
Moss Hall sank Maypole from 1895, and Pearson & Knowles took control in 1907. At about 5.10 pm on 18 August 1908, an explosion tore through the Four Feet (Cannel) workings just after most of the day shift had come up. The inquest recorded 75 deaths, though 76 is often given. When fire broke out underground, rescue was abandoned and the pit was flooded from the canal. The last body wasn’t recovered until 1917. Andy’s last photo is a postcard of the lost men.
Maypole worked on under the Wigan Coal Corporation from 1930, then the NCB, until June 1959. In Andy’s words: “R I P to all the lost souls.”
What a complete lamp should have
Andy’s strip-down photo shows every part: bonnet on its top ring and pillars, with a wire-wrapped hook; a single gauze (the sooty cylinder); a plain glass; the brass vessel with its two-tube burner; the lock catch; and the screw rings and washers that seal glass and gauze. A lamp offered without its gauze or washers isn’t complete.
Gallery
Lamp record
| Maker | J.H. Naylor Ltd, Wigan |
|---|---|
| Burner | “Bi-fold” (Andy’s term), two wick tubes |
| Marks | “M H C Co”, “PATENT” and lamp number 1600 |
| Owner | Moss Hall Coal Company, owners of Maypole Colliery; we can’t say which of their pits it worked in |
| Price guide | Plain Naylor lamps are common: a mixed lot of four including a Naylor made £182 with fees at Ewbank’s in March 2024, about £45 a lamp. No sale record found for a Moss Hall-stamped lamp. |
Credit. Lamp, photos and story: Andy Jones, shared with his kind permission. Thank you, Andy.
