Single Record

Full Details

Surname

ASHWORTH

Forename

Thomas

Day

08

Month

08

Year

1906

Age

58

Occupation

Hewer

Mine/Quarry Name

Harrington

Mineral Worked

Coal

Owner

James Bain & Co.

Location

Lowca

County

Cumberland

Details of Event

Deceased and another hewer were working together in a longwall face 13 yards wide, fasten both sides, going to the rise at 1 in 9 alongside a pillar of coal left to protect a main road in the Swamp section of the Six Quarters band, 11 feet thick, of No.9 Pit. They were in the afternoon shift and, after working an hour and 20 minutes, a blue metal stone, 9 feet long, parallel to the face, 24 feet wide and 14 inches thick sell from the roof close to the face opposite the road-head relieved by a glassy slip lying forward along the face a joint parallel to it and joints at each end. The roof in the road had been brushed the night before and the packs were about a yard from the coal. The fall may have canted a prop. There was sufficient loose timber lying close by and a good deal set in the place. Deceased appears to have caught his lamp up when he heard the stone working, and this may have delayed his escape, or he may have come in contact with a prop. The deputy had examined the place half-an-hour before the men started work in the afternoon shift and it then appeared safe.