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Full Details

Surname
BOWERS
Forename
Thomas
Day
08
Month
12
Year
1908
Age
40
Occupation
Collier
Mine/Quarry Name
Shelton, Deep Pit
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Shelton Iron, Steel & Coal Co. Ltd
Location
Hanley
County
Staffordshire
Details of Event
On the day of the accident deceased and his mates bad been engaged in moving up the landing in a jig in the Cockshead Seam where the inclination is 1 in 4. A length of ripping, which at this point was 5ft. in thickness, had been blown down on the previous night. During the first part of the day the debris from the ripping was being removed and at 9.30am deceased set a bar under the ripping and about 1ft. 6ins. from its edge. A post was then drawn at a point about midway between this bar and another bar 5ft. distant from it. This caused a little weighting of the roof but it was said that it soon settled and went quite still. About half an hour later deceased was standing in the jig just beneath the edge of the ripping handing up a prop to his mate when a huge lump of stone, weighing between 4 and 5 tons fell from the edge of the ripping on to deceased causing instant death. The bar set under the edge of the ripping was reeled out by the fall which came from a longwall break. It is evident that an ordinary setting of timber was not sufficient in this position to support so great a thickness of loosened roof at this inclination. It is probable that an additional prop at each side of the jig might have prevented the accident.