The Oaks Pit Disaster - Barnsley/Yorkshire Mining History and Dialect Song

This week we're taking a look at the Oaks Pit Disaster (or the Oaks Explosion as it’s also known) that occurred near Stairfoot in Barnsley (West Riding of Yorkshire at the time, now South Yorkshire). This tragic event remains the worst mining disaster in Yorkshire (and indeed English) history.
I round out the video with my take on a Yorkshire song about the event that has been preserved by the Yorkshire Garland Group. I've kept the narrative the same, but have updated the lyrics with West Riding dialect in homage to those that died during the disaster.
The Oaks Pit Disaster (preserved by the Yorkshire Garland Group, updated by William Rhodes):
1
There’s weeping an’ wailing in many a dwelling,
Wheer ‘appiness reigned bu’ a short time agu.
For friends an’ relations, there's fowk left moourning,
In accents o’ sadness, in accents o’ woe.
Nah, who can console t’ bereeaved and afflicted,
Or comfort t’ orphans, who silent deplooer?
Ovver t’ cheeks o’ t’ widow t’ tear is fast falling,
Her son, her support, he alas is n’ mooer.
2
To t’ Oaks Pit near Tarn on t’ 12th of December
Abaht foour ‘undred colliers to work they did gu,
In health and in strength upon that fatal moorning,
Not thinking o’ danger they descended below.
But tha’ afternoon wi’aht one moment's warning,
T’ coil pit exploded with a terrific rooar.
Three ‘undred and fotty eight by that fearful explosion,
Their lives they’ve lost, which we deeply deplooer.
3
O’ this dreadful disaster t’ news spread like leetning.
And t’ fowk cem running from both far an’ near,
And t’ widows and orphans their rooaring wo’ ‘eartrending.
As they shahted fo’ their ‘usbands and fa’thers s’ dear,
While brothers and sisters in groups were seen moourning,
An’ old aged parents their grey locks they tore
And maidens lamented t’ fate of their lovers,
By that fatal explosion they'll nivve r see ‘em n’mooer.
4
O’ them brave volunteers who s’ boldly did venture,
Dahn that ill fated pit t’ poor sufferers to save,
They did all lose their lives by the second explosion,
Except Samuel Brown, that young hero s’ brave.
After twenty long hours in that gloomy sepulchre,
‘e got to t’ shaft - and for help did implooer.
Mr Embelton and Mammott went dahn and they fon ‘im,
And brave Brown in life to t’ surface they booer.
5
That direful explosion at t’ Oaks Pit near Barnsley,
Ovver t’ mining districts ‘as cast a sad gloom.
On t’ four hundred colliers in t’ Oaks Pit that morning,
Nah three-hundred-and-fotty-eight lig dahn in t’ tomb.
They’ve left aged parents with nobbd’y to befriend ‘em,
‘oose pleasure on earth it forever has fled,
And who nah will comfort t’ widows and orphans
Who moourns for their friends that nah sleep with t’ dead?

[@Fenditokesdialect]

Taa for uplooadin this here! Tha's doin God's wark wi teychin abaat loacal history an wi a nice bit o dialect to goa alang wi it! I Shevvild we've Tom Hague as did similar pooems to do wi t'collier's life, this video reminds me o t'pooem "Markham N°2".

[@YorkshireWordsAndWisdom]

@@Fenditokesdialect ey up, thanks very much for the kind words! I'm away for the next couple of weeks but aiming to upload something once a week going forward - mainly just to preserve/share the dialect and local history. I hadn't come across Markham No 2 before but it's a belter, thanks for sharing!