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Full Details

Surname
COCKBAIN
Forename
John
Day
10
Month
09
Year
1907
Age
68
Occupation
Shiftman
Mine/Quarry Name
Whitehaven
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Whitehaven Colliery Co.
Location
Whitehaven
County
Cumberland
Details of Event
Deceased was employed cleaning up coal and rubbish that bad collected on the inner end of an endless rope haulage road in the West district of the Main band of the Ladysmith pit. He had hung his coat at the corner of a pillar of coal where a dilley road joined the engine plane and he came to it to get a drink out of his water bottle, when a mass of coal weighing about 24 cwts. fell off the corner of the pillar from the upper part of the seam and crushed his head The seam is 7 feet 4 inches thick and tender in the centre which wastes away leaving the upper part overhanging sod this had fallen away for a length of 9 feet with a depth at the top of 2.5 feet. It came off from a cleat. The roof was well supported by legs and crowns iron girders and chocks, but the sides were not supported as it is usual to take down any coal considered dangerous. The master shifter had passed the place about 14 hours before the accident and had noticed no danger, deceased was then working 40 yards further inbye. A bogie man, standing within 6 feet of deceased when the fall came away, said it gave no warning but as the endless rope was running at the time the notice it made may have prevented any slight warning being heard. The seam is subject to bowks or thuds, and one may have been induced by falls of roof in an adjoining place where the roof had been working all the week.