To the families who had been waiting above for six days, the scale of death was devastating. The close-knit nature of the community meant that no family was unaffected by the death, some even lost more than one member.
The level of mortality was more than the infrastructure of this tiny community could bear. The nearest cemetery lay four miles away at Earsdon, where extra land was released by the Duke of Northumberland for the bodies to be buried, as the existing cemetery could not support them. The funeral procession from New Hartley to Earsdon took place on 26th January, when the 204 caskets snaked their way in a four mile long sombre chain of black.
The tragedy caught the attention of the public, with vivid reports appearing in newspapers across the country. The plight of the widows and their families and the cruel economising which had led to their great loss caught the public’s attention. The Queen herself sent a letter of condolence to the village of New Hartley. This public sympathy was used by miners and safety campaigners to force a change in the law that would guarantee an accident such as this one would never happen again.
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