Fatal Accident at Cadeby Main – Inquest on Body of Deceased

May 1897

Mexborough and Swinton Times, May 21, 1897

Fatal Accident at Cadeby Main.

Inquest on The Body of The Deceased.

Yesterday, at the Montagu cottage Hospital, Mexborough, Mr Bagshaw, the deputy coroner, held an inquest upon the body of Geo, Chambers, aged 82, a collier employed at Cadeby main colliery, who received fatal injuries while working at the colliery on the morning of Wednesday, the 1st inst.

Councillor F. King was foreman of the jury, which was comprised of Messrs W. Corbridge, J. P. Searle, A. Baron, B. Crossland, J. E. Cliff, T. Law, C. Trafford, F. J. Edwards, T. Cork, T. Wilson and T. Lovatt.

Mr Mellors, HM. Assistant inspector of mines, attended the enquiry while Mr H. S. Witty represented the Denaby and Cadeby collieries Ltd.

John Chambers, collier, Barnsley, identified the body of the deceased as that of his brother, George Chambers. He had made enquiries as to how he met his death, and did not believe anyone was to blame.

Thomas Ryder, new Conisborough, said he was a trammer working at Cadeby Main colliery. He trammed for deceased and his mates, who worked in No.2 stall up 47 gate at the colliery. On the morning of the 19th, owing to some repairs which were being carried out at the junction of 41 and 47 gate, he was tramming for another collier until about 2:45, when he was told by the man working at the repairs that the road was clear. He then went to the deceased and asked him to assist him in getting the full corves which had been filled and were standing at the top of 47 gate, down to the flat sheet. The gradient of 47 gate was steep, and it was necessary to locker the tubs. There were eight full tubs standing at the top of the gate when he heard that the road was clear.

They had been filled by the deceased and his mate, a man named Woodcock. They had brought them out of their working place on to the gate, and it was their duty to locker them. From the time the night shift commenced no full tubs had been brought down the gate.

Chambers, the deceased man, went with witness to assist in getting the tubs down the incline. Witness went first and held back, and deceased was behind holding back. They got three tubs down safely and started with the fourth. All these tubs had been double lockered, and they had taken out one of the lockers in each case before starting with the tub. As they were going down the gate with the fourth tub, witness suddenly felt all the weight thrown upon him, and he had difficulty in getting down with the tub. In fact it knocked him down, but he got up again, and on looking to see what had become of Chambers, he saw him up the gate with his head and neck jammed fast between a bar and the fifth tub.

He called for assistance and two men named Binsley and Room, who were working below on the flat came and helped him to extricate the deceased. He was unconscious. They got him out of the pit, and he was sent to the Montagu Cottage Hospital but died on the way there. The bar by which the deceased was caught was about 3’ 6’’ high. There was about 2 inches more room than the coal required to clear. The average height of the roof was six or 7 feet, but this bar had lowered. They would often lower rate lot in a shift.

The Coroner: How much had that lowered? – 2 inches that shift.

How long had it been lowered? – It had been lowered like that very few days. A week ago it would be at least a foot above the corf top.

Do you consider it safe to bring tubs down on incline and underneath a bar at just 3’6” high? They would be good at a good speed then, would they not?

Witness: No, they would be going at their slowest them. It is level there.

Mr H. S. Witty: I perhaps ought to explain; there is not a uniform gradient. Just at this spot it is on the level.

In answer to the foreman of the jury, witness said the fifth corf must have come down the incline on top of deceased as they were getting the fourth down the gate. When they were getting the deceased out he noticed that the corf which killed him was only locked in the back wheels.

John Chambers (deceased brother): I thought you said in your examination all the corves were double lockered?

Witness: I am not aware I did.

To coroner: I understood him to say all the corves he dealt with were double lockered.

Witness: All that I handled were double Lockered. I didn’t touch the one that killed him.

Mr Cliff: Don’t you consider this bar was a very dangerous place?

Witness: Not particularly.

The Coroner: You are bound to have dangerous places in a colliery.

Mr Searle: Certainly, just the same as you are bound to by bad fish sometimes. (Laughter)

Mr Mellor: it is not an uncommon thing for a bar to come down, is it? – No.

Mr Cliff: I object to that Mr coroner.

The coroner: do you, I am conducting this inquest.

Mr Cliff: but I object to a remark made by one of the juryman.

The coroner: Well I didn’t hear that. (Laughter)

Mr Mellor: You had worked up and down the gate I suppose? – Yes.

Did you consider your life was in danger? – No not particularly.

The coroner: what cause a bar to lower, the waiting? – Yes, I should think so.

Mr Mellor: how high was the bar when it was set? – About 5’6” at least.

In reply to the coroner, witness said he could not account for the tub which killed deceased leaving the top of the gate, unless it had not been properly lockered

Mr Witty said he had seen the tub since the accident, and it was then lockers in both wheels. He could offer no explanation why it had come down the road.

Witness in reply to Mr Mellor said when he and the deceased eased up the fourth tub to take one of the lockers out they did not disturbed the fifth tub at all.

The jury intimated in reply to the coroner that they did not think any further evidence was necessary, and after the coroner had summed up they returned a verdict of “accidental death.”