Whitley Colliery Shaft Accident – Whitley – 1835

WHITLEY, Durham, 1st. May 1835.

A man named Robinson and five other boys were killed at three o’clock in the morning while they were descending the pit. The hook was not connected to the bow of the corf which the man and boys were in and it fell down the shaft, a distance of forty-five fathoms. It was thought to be the first fatal accident that had occurred at the colliery. At the inquest, a verdict of “Accidental Death with the dead and of one shilling upon the corfe” was recorded.

REFERENCES
Select Committee on Accidents in Coal Mines 1852-3.
Richardson’s Table Book Vol.IV, p.237.
Newcastle Courant.

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