Single Record

Full Details

Surname

BAILEY

Forename

John

Day

06

Month

11

Year

1905

Age

24

Occupation

Labourer

Mine/Quarry Name

Ullcoats Mine

Mineral Worked

Iron Ore

Owner

Ullcoats Mining Co. Ltd

Location

Egremont

County

Cumberland

Details of Event

Deceased, during his second shift in the mine, but who had worked in other mines, descended the shaft in one of the cages from No.2 level, in which he worked, to No.3 level, 79 feet below, where it appeared workmen were in the habit of going to relieve themselves in a stream of water flowing there. The shaft was sunk 63 feet below No.3 level to the low bottom where there was a scaffold over the sump. Deceased left No.2 level with a lighted candle which seems to have been extinguished in the shaft. There was no fixed light at No.3 level although there was at No.2 level. When the cage arrived at No.3 level a labourer at No.2 level which had signalled him down, called to him to signal the cage away, when deceased replied he was in the dark and could not find the hammer; immediately after a signal was given from No.3 level and the cage came up and no alarm appears to have been felt, as although deceased said he was in the dark he had asked for no light and it was thought he had matches with him. About half-an-hour after one of the miners in No.2 level, for whom deceased worked, made enquiry, and then on descending to the low bottom deceased’s body was found on the scaffold. There are hinged gates fencing the shaft opposite both cages at No.3 level, and it appeared likely that the gate fencing the shaft opposite the other cage had been left open and that deceased after signalling had walked into the shaft thinking that he was going round the end of it. The jury added to their verdict of accidental death the recommendations ‘that an automatic gate or something of that kind be erected if it was practicable, and also that a fixed light be placed at each of the eyes named.’