July 19th 1904
Colliery Accident At Denaby.
Age: 18 Pony-driver Run over by Tubs
An inquest was held at Mexborough Montagu Cottage Hospital on Friday afternoon, by deputy coroner, Mr. J. Kenyon-Parker, touching the death of Archer Hartley, a pony-driver residing in Victoria Road, Mexborough, who died shortly after his admittance to the hospital on Wednesday, suffering from serious head injuries received the previous day at Denaby Main Colliery.
Mr. A.H. Barnard, agent, and Mr. C. Bury, manager, represented the Colliery Co. and Mr. James Mellor, Assistant Inspector of Mines, was also present.
Elizabeth Liversedge, of 78 Victoria Road, Mexborough, said she was the mother of the deceased, who was sixteen years of age, and was employed at the Denaby Main Colliery. He was a healthy youth. On Tuesday he went to work about five o´clock in the morning. He was brought to the Hospital the same day ; He was suffering from fractures of the collar-bone and both thighs, necessitating an operation. He succumbed to his injuries later. Although he was conscious he never said anything about the accident.
George Martin, a boy aged thirteen, of 14 Annerley Street, Denaby Main, said he knew deceased. Witness was a door-trapper, employed in the pit, and on the Tuesday he saw deceased many times. It would be somewhere near to twelve o´clock when he was in charge of a pony and a run of full tubs, about ten or fourteen. He saw him being dragged along under the tubs, just before he got through the door, and witness was trapping. Witness did not know how he got under the tubs.
Charles Jacques, aged eighteen, from Hallgate, Mexborough, a dataller, said the last witness fetched him to the assistance of the deceased, and he found him under the second tub. He was badly hurt, but he was quite conscious, and told him that he was running between the chain and the tubs ran over him. He was then taken to the Hospital, and every assistance given to him. The jury returned a verdict of ” Accidentally Killed.”