and found Samuel Brown, who had entered the previous morning and had been in the pit for nearly 24 hours. Brown had descended with the rescue party at 7 am the previous day and had been with Hoyland, Barker, and Young. They had taken shelter in a lamphole when the second larger explosion hit and Brown was knocked unconscious. When he awakened, he found his comrades were dead [though, strangely, there is no Young among the lists of casualties] and wandered to the base of No. 2 shaft. Finding nothing, he made his way to the No. 1 shaft and rang the bell. He reported he neither saw nor heard any signs of life from anyone else after the explosions Mammatt and Embleton Jr ventured a little distance into the workings but found no other living person and saw the workings were still on fire. They bound Brown to the rope and were about to set off when Mammatt was thrown off balance and into the water below. He was able to grab onto the bucket to keep from drowning and the three balanced precariously on the kibble as they were raised to the surface. Aftermath On Saturday 15 December six more explosions occurred. A meeting between the colliery viewers and the government inspector concluded that nothing more could be done for those below, and with the mine alight the only option was to seal it to extinguish the fire. On the following Monday 17 December work started to seal the three shafts. Explosions continued for nearly a week more. From 30 January until 5 November 1867, hourly checks were made at the shafts until it was deemed safe to reopen them. Tomlinson describes a visit he made to the pithead during this time: Once the shafts were reopened and ventilation established the task of recovering the bodies began. Jeffcock's body was discovered on Saturday 2 October 1869 and buried the following Monday. The colliery reopened in December 1870. The 150 bodies still underground were recovered. It was noted in contemporary reports that some of the bodies were sufficiently preserved to permit identification. Sightseers and funerals On Sunday 16 December, special trains filled with sightseers ran to Barnsley from Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield and Manchester. Roads to the colliery were filled with sightseers and vehicles. Special services were held in Barnsley's churches where the bishop of Ripon was the preacher. The