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Full Details

Surname
LAWS
Forename
James
Day
12
Month
09
Year
1907
Age
23
Occupation
Hewer
Mine/Quarry Name
Backworth
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Owners of Backworth Collieries
Location
Backworth
County
Northumberland
Details of Event
He was working during the back shift of the night shift driving a water level place in the New South district of the Yard seam of the Church pit. The place was about 13 feet wide and the coal 2 feet 7 inches thick. A bottom canch, 5 feet wide and 2 feet deep was shot up to within 10.5 feet of the face on the left or rise side of the place for tub height. The timbering consisted of planks, one end let into holes cut in the coal on the left side and supported by seam props at the other end these planks protected the tramway as it advanced and were supplemented by props and planks on the low side. The roof consisted of about 14 inches of blue metal followed by host. The putter was in the place at the time of the accident and he was in the cut holding deceased a light while he set a plank. Deceased was on the canch and the plank was resting at one end in a hole cut in the coal and he was about to put a prop under the other end when some of the blue metal, 11 feet long by 3 feet wide on the average and from 8 to 14 inches thick fell open him from two converging slips running diagonally across the place which was very wet. The putter got help and he was released in about half-an-hour but was dead. The place had been visited by the chargeman twice during the shift, the last time about 11 hours before the accident when he fired a shot in the coal, and on neither occasion had he observed danger. There was a sufficient supply of loose timber near. The fall displaced two planks. The Local Inspectors described the fall in their report and stated that they were of opinion deceased was ‘Accidentally killed.'