MADDERLEY WOOD. Ironbridge, Shropshire. 27th. September, 1864.

The Colliery was the property of John Anstice and Company and was between Ironbridge and Madderley and mined ironstone. It was also known as Lane Pit. Three men and six boys were killed when a skip detached while ascending the shaft. The skip in which they were travelling fell through a scaffold which was made of six-inch oak. As soon as the disaster was heard of, a crowd of hundreds gathered at the pit head. The pit was 250 yards deep.

The men who lost their lives were:

  • Edward Mallett, married with four children,
  • Benjamin Davies,
  • John Tranter, married with six children.

The boys,

  • William Onions,
  • Joseph Maden,
  • John Fair,
  • John Jones,
  • William Jarret,
  • Francis Cookson.

The inquest was held before Mr. E.J. Bartlam, Coroner. Joseph Vaughan, the engineman, said that all was going well when he suddenly felt the weight go off the engine. The Coroner instructed the jury to bring in a verdict that the men were “Accidentally Killed”.

In his Report, Mr. Wynne commented:

The number of accidents and lives lost is the same as last year but this is not satisfactory to me, for so long as the present system of open shafts without guides, continues to prevail, so long will men fall from the surface, from partway down, be struck by falling things from the surface and by things falling from partway down. In this, as in all other things, improvements are prevented by the ignorance of the parties in charge of mines, who set their faces against all improvements, and in some cases, push their ignorance so prominently forward as to say, “They would not go down the pits if their masters introduced guides.”

 

REFERENCES
The Colliery Guardian, 1st October 1864. p.268, 8th October 1864, p.286.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.

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