The East Wheal Rose mining disaster of 1846 was the worst mining disaster in Cornish history.
On 9 July 1846 a thunderstorm caused a flash flood. The mine was in a natural bowl, and the flood waters had nowhere to go, except into the mine. Captain Middleton, the manager of the mine, organised 300 men to pile up earth around the collars of the shafts but the volume of water pouring down was so great that soon torrents of water poured down the shafts. This caused a wind to blow that extinguished the candles that the miners used underground. So when the water hit them, they were in utter darkness.
Captain Champion somehow managed to climb the slippery ladders against the tremendous weight of down-rushing water. A timber-man, Samuel Bastion, went down into the mine to lie across a manhole, diverting the flow of water and saving eighteen lives.
The beam engines were put to work in raising men to the surface, clinging to the kibbles and chains ‘like strings of onions’. Forty-three men and boys were missing but four of them were brought up alive next morning. The lower levels of the mine were completely flooded. But, by November 1846 all the debris and water had been cleared and the mine was in full production again.
William Lanyon and Peggy Exter Richard’s sons, Josiah and Reuben were among the thirty nine miners drowned.
Josiah Lanyon 1815-1846
Josiah married Charlotte Mae Mitchell at St Allen in 1837. They had four children:
- Reuben 1838-1895 married Elizabeth Francis – six children: two died in infancy, Reuben, a school teacher died unmarried, aged 28, Mary Ellen married her cousin also called Reuben Lanyon (the son of John Lanyon and Johanna Roberts) but they had no children. Two sons Francis and Edwin had children.
- Edwin 1840-1871 he was a miner and emigrated to California where he died, he was unmarried
- Mary Jane 1842-1888 was a milliner and a spinster
- Josiah 1845-1912 was a grocer and a bachelor
Josiah’s widow Charlotte died in 1900 at the age of 86.
Reuben Lanyon 1824-1846
Reuben was Josiah’s younger brother and drowned alongside him in the mine disaster aged just 22.
Six Lanyon boys were subsequently named after him.
The Lanyons 