On 25 September 1923, water began to flood into No. 23 pit at Redding due to the accidental breaching of a water filled older shaft. The pit was flooded trapping the miners below. Twenty one of the miners were rescued via an old shaft that day with three bodies recovered. On the 4 October five miners were rescued, these were the last to be taken out alive. The bodies of the other 40 miners were recovered over the days and weeks that followed with the last being removed in early December, on day 40 of the rescue.
Many of those who died were drowned when the flood waters broke through but 11 of them had survived for two weeks in a section of the pit that wasn’t used for 14 years and had remained dry. It is still not known how they reached it as they would have had to travel through a flooded section of the mine to get there. Several of the men left messages for their families, heart-breaking notes one of which is on display in the exhibition.
A disaster fund was established by the Provost and the Falkirk Herald and raised over £60,000 within a year. By January Pit No. 23 was back in operation. It finally closed in 1958.
