The inquiry into the deaths of the men was held by Dr. Albert Green, Deputy Coroner, at Blackwell. The court heard that there was no doubt that John Jones went down the pit to fire a shot in the South Main Road and remove the obstruction to the haulage. After hearing all the evidence the jury brought in the following verdict:-
“We find that John Jones and six others whose bodies we viewed on November 13th met their deaths on November 11th in the low Main seam at the ‘A’ Winning Pit of the Blackwell Colliery Company, which explosion was caused by an overcharged shot of gunpowder but the evidence fails to clearly define the secondary cause.
We find that no blame can be attached to the management, and we believe that all concerned will have benefited from the results of this calamity.
We also wish to express our sense of admiration of the noble courage displayed by the whole of the exploring party, and to thank the management for the assistance rendered to us by the clear manner in which the maps and tracings have been provided and explained.”
Mr. Stokes commented on the remarks about the secondary cause when all the expert witnesses recognised the cause as coal dust. He commented:-
“The failure of the jury to recognise the secondary cause was probably due to the general reluctance of many mining men and others to admit coal dust alone can be fired and rise to such devastating phenomena as those found after a colliery explosion.”