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Full Details

Surname
GRIFFITHS
Forename
Giles
Day
27
Month
04
Year
1906
Age
37
Occupation
Stoneman
Mine/Quarry Name
Bedlington
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Bedlington Coal Co. Ltd
Location
Bedlington
County
Northumberland
Details of Event
Deceased was shooting up a bottom caunch in a longwall heading in the 8th North flat of the Yard seam, 2 feet 10 inches thick, of the A pit. The heading had only recently been started off an old road with coal sides, in which both top and bottom stone had been removed to make height. He was visited by the chargeman at 7.55pm after he had fired two shots, and as the second shot had displaced a pair of gears set under the brow next the old road the chargeman replaced it, and after jowling the stone left the place at 8.10pm., as he considered, safe. The chargeman returned at 8.35pm. and found a blue metal stone, 6 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 17 inches thick, relieved by jacks at each end and at the back, and with a free side next the old road and a good parting above, had fallen on him from the brow displacing the pair of gears that had been reset and a prop under another pair set at right angles under one end of the stone, also breaking but not displacing the plank. Deceased was released 20 minutes after the chargeman found him but he was then dead. There was sufficient loose timber for use lying near. The Local Inspectors reported, ‘In our opinion it was a pure accident.’