Mexborough and Swinton Times December 18, 1936

Riding on a Tub Frame
Denaby pit lads dangerous trick

Two Denaby boys, aged 17 and 15 ½, employed as haulage hands at Denaby Main, who endangered their own and other work men’s lives by riding on a tub frame down the pit, were fined £1 each at Doncaster on Saturday for breach of the Mines Act.

Mr A S Furniss, the prosecutor, said the circumstances might be very serious to other people in the pit. At the end of the shift on November 3, a deputy was going out of the pit, down the ordinary travelling road, when he saw a tub frame on the rails. It dashed past him for 300 yards and crashed into a pile of tubs, breaking the clip which released the tubs. There was a smash.

The boys dug a frame out of the goaf and carried it to the rails. Another man was knocked down by it and received injuries for which he was off work for a time. The two defendants then threw themselves off the buggy and one of them was injured. They committed the offence to save themselves walking. There were 16 men who had to take refuge in the refuge holes, and any one of them might have been killed. The only redeeming feature was that the management said both were extremely good work lads.

The chairman (Mr GE Cook Yarborough) told the boys he hoped they realised that what they did was dangerous both for themselves and other people in the pit.