Single Record

Full Details

Surname

BELL

Forename

Joseph

Day

23

Month

01

Year

1907

Age

33

Occupation

Hewer

Mine/Quarry Name

Watergate

Mineral Worked

Coal

Owner

Flimby & Broughton Moor Coal & Fire Brick Co. Ltd

Location

Flimby

County

Cumberland

Details of Event

Four other persons were injured by this accident. The No.2 Pit is an upcast shaft with fan ventilation; it is 13 feet diameter and 113 fathoms deep to the Cannel band eye, to which point it is traversed by two single decked cages each holding two tubs placed end to end. The covers of the cages are flat and consist of wooden boards. The shaft is walled with bricks for 101 fathoms from the surface and for 33 fathoms above the Cannel band eye the remainder is lined with wood. The wood lining consists of oak cribs 5 inches square placed about 45. feet apart and to the inside of these cribs, deal boards 10 inches wide and 1/8 inches thick called latting are nailed. The miners were ascending at the end of the shift and 5 cage loads had gone up, one of the cages was at the Cannel band eye and had nearly received its complement of 12 men when some stone fell from the side of the shaft 33.5 fathoms above and near the bottom of the latting, which it broke away, and falling on to the cage top broke through the wood cover and killed deceased, injuring some of the others. The stone was blue metal and broke up in its fall, but two of the largest pieces measured 2 feet 8 inches by 10 inches by 7.5 inches, and 1 foot 10 inches by 9 inches by 6 inches respectively. About 3 weeks before the accident a commencement had been made to deepen the shaft to lower seams and sinkers were engaged on this work after the pit was done drawing coal. The shaftsman’s reports on the 13th December, the 22nd January, and the 23rd January called attention to defective latting near the point from which the stone fell, but he stated at the inquest that the fall took place above the defective point. The stone fell away from a natural joint in the strata and broke away some of the latting. The Jury found that the deceased were killed by a fall of stone in the shaft but were unable to say definitely whether the defective latting contributed to the fall but they regretted that the report of the 19th December had not been promptly attended to. This mode of securing shaft sides is not the safest as the latting is only held in position by nails. The rotting of wood in the moist air of an upcast shaft may escape notice. An arched iron cover to cages is safer than a flat wooden top. 2 killed.