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Full Details

Surname
HEBDEN
Forename
Willam
Day
17
Month
12
Year
1906
Age
47
Occupation
Shifter
Mine/Quarry Name
Blaydon Burn, Mary Drift
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Priestman Collieries Ltd
Location
Blaydon
County
Durham
Details of Event
In the Staple East District of the Five Quarter seam of the Mary drift, the Stone Coal seam, 3 feet 1 inch thick, has been worked in former times above the Five Quarter seam, 3 feet 5 inches thick, from which it is separated by 2 feet 6 inches of fireclay, necessitating close timbering in the Five Quarter seam now being worked in the whole or first working of the bord and pillar system. The bords, 12 feet wide, are turned away opposite each other, 6 feet wide, and holed the same width on to the headways. A bord had gone a few yards when the timber at the turn, consisting of two crossing planks set close together with six planks resting on them, supported at their other ends by props, gave way and required renewal, and deceased and another shifter were at the work. And headways in the Stone coal seam nearly coincided with the headways in the Five Quarter seam. They may have put in some new planks between the six planks supported by new props at their ends furthest from the crossing planks and then middle propped them so as to renew the crossing planks when the whole roof collapsed, burying deceased under the fireclay between the seams, as well as any stowage in the old place above them, and ramble above the Stone Coal seam. The timber in the herd opposite had been drawn out within a few feet of the headways, and this may have left an open side to the stone in that direction. Suggestions were made at the inquest as to the advisability of not drawing the timber in the old bords so near the headways, and also as to driving the bords off and on. The Local Inspectors reported, ‘we have come to the conclusion that it was a pure accident.'