Single Record

Full Details

Surname

COPPARD

Forename

Horace James

Day

22

Month

05

Year

1915

Age

36

Occupation

Labourer

Mine/Quarry Name

Great Culand Quarry

Mineral Worked

Chalk

Owner

Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (1900) Ltd

Location

Burham

County

Kent

Details of Event

Overburden, some 8 feet in depth, was being removed by undercutting for a length of about 15 feet, tacks or legs being left solid at each end of the cut, and then, after the tacks or legs had been cut out, forcing down the undercut portion by driving crowbars vertically into the overburden some 2 feet from its edge. In the present instance the debris from the undercut was being shovelled into a tipping wagon by the deceased and two others prior to taking out the tacks or legs, when the whole of the undercut portion, some 10 cubic yards, fell over. One of the men saw the fall coming and he shouted out a warning and ran clear, as did the man at the other end of the cut; but deceased, who was in between these two and opposite the tipping wagon, failed to get clear and was buried by the fall. The foreman of the quarry, a few minutes before, had been standing on the overburden which fell. After the fall there was no slip or back or any evidence of percolating water to be seen to account for it, but the method of working was such that a fall of this character was liable to occur at any time. It would have been safer to have removed the overburden by means of a steam navvy or in steps or stages one in advance of the other.