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In September 1950 one of the worst mining accidents in the history of British coal mining occurred in the Ayrshire village of New Cumnock. For several tense days the world's media descended on the small Ayrshire mining village as rescuers strove to reach the men trapped deep underground. British Pathe News described this as 'a truly remarkable story of how ordinary men worked tirelessly in a race against time and the forces of nature to achieve one of the most dramatic and remarkable rescues ever attempted.'. The events are depicted in the 1952 film ''The Brave Don't Cry''. ==Background== Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery was situated in the Parish of New Cumnock in East Ayrshire. New Cumnock lies 22 miles south east of Ayr and 45 miles south of Glasgow. The river Afton, made famous by Scotland’s bard Robert Burns, ‘flows gently’ approximately 300 yards to the east of the site. The colliery was developed by New Cumnock Collieries Ltd. The shaft was sunk in 1942 on the site of an older pit that had been abandoned almost 60 years earlier. The project brought new prosperity to what had been considered a dying area by the local mining community, attracting many miners from Lanarkshire to the village with the promise of employment. A policy of advanced mechanisation was employed by the owners and the ‘Castle’ was one of the best equipped and most productive collieries in the Ayrshire coalfield. At the time of the disaster coal production was in the region of 4.5–5000 tons per week, extracted mainly from two seams known locally as the ‘Main Coal’ and the ‘Turf Coal’. Before the accident Knockshinnoch employed approximately 700 men. By 1950 Knockshinnoch Castle was operated by the recently formed National Coal Board (NCB), Scottish Division, who had taken control from the New Cumnock Collieries Ltd following nationalisation of the coal industry by Clement Attlee’s Labour Government in 1947. The NCB continued to invest in the development of modern mechanised techniques at the pit. The colliery also boasted great welfare for employees including a new canteen and pithead baths, which were opened amidst a blaze of publicity during the first week of September 1950. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Knockshinnoch Disaster」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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