Mexborough and Swinton Times July 30, 1937

Kilnhurst Pit Accident
Remarkable Escape
18 Men Dashed Down Shaft
One Killed: Others Badly Injured
Miners Courage And Presence Of Mind
Injured Man Helps Rescuers
Inquest Opened And Adjourned

Early Rumour

I reached the pit yard shortly after the accident (writes a “Times” reporter) hearing a wild rumour that the death roll numbered 17 and that the cage had crashed from a height of nearly 300 feet. Happily, it soon became evident that the gravity of the mishap have been exaggerated. An official testify that the debts of the cages plunge could not have been very considerable, and he gave assurances that as far as could be learned only one man had been killed.

At this a crowd of several hundreds standing before the wages office sighed with relief but continued to waiting restive silence, eyes focusing upon the station winding gear and then on the line of eight waiting ambulances. All was the dead man? Who were in the cage? Are they seriously hurt?

A thrill pass through the crowd as a winding gear slowly began to revolve. The first draw. An ambulance backed into position. Half a dozen men rushed up bed on stretchers. More waiting, then the ambulance came down the pit yard, carefully picking its way, and with visible relief the crowd of anxious miners, their wives, and children so through blurred glass that the first batch of survivors were able to sit up.

For an hour and ½ the work of rescue went on, and the casualties were rushed either the Montagu or Rotherham Hospital. Meanwhile, a team of doctors had assembled at the pit and had attended to the men.

In the words of a miner in the upper cage, all the men had “a close call, and it is amazing that more were not killed.”

Fortunately, the metal cage did not burst and the cage rest at the shaft bottom did not yield beneath the force of the crash.

Hero of the Day.

The hero of the day was Richard Harper, single, of 102, Clay Pit Lane, Rawmarsh, who was taken to hospital, but soon allowed to go home. He told how he was on the top platform of the cage, and a second or two before the crash they all realise something was going to happen. The cage appeared to be descending quite normal until it reached a point in his opinion, about 60 feet from the bottom.

“Then something happened to the winding gear, and the cage just dropped. I fell on my hands and knees as it began to speed towards the bottom, and it was this action and the fact that I was near the gate that saved my life or saved me from serious injury.”

“When the cage crashed the door was jerked open and I was flung onto the landing. I was dazed but I was able to pull myself around and help the rescue party to get the injured out. I work with the others until a doctor ordered me to go home. I was very badly shaken, but I escaped with bruises. I didn’t hear a sound from the men when the cage began to drop, but when I found myself on the lower deck they were all huddled in heaps and most of them were groaning with pain.

“Joe Sales was beneath the number of men on the lower deck, and I saw him pulled out.”

James Spencer, one of the slightly injured men, who was standing next to Sales on the lower deck, paid high tribute to Harper. “He must be tough,” he told a reporter, “I cannot and mining too much for the work you did attending to the wound down there at the bottom.”

James Ensor said that the men could judge the speed of the cage, and it seemed to be travelling faster than usual. “I don’t remember anything else until I was revived at the pit bottom. I got away with only a sprained ankle.”

A member of the “Times” Rotherham staff, writing of his visit to the homes of the men involved in the crash, comments:

Most grevious of all was the visit to the house of the dead man. Here the news had been broken by the eldest daughter, who is employed in the house of Mr D Black, a colliery official. Mr Black had taken the girl home by car. The widow, her eyes red with weeping, surrounded by consoling relatives. There are four children in all. Sales was gassed when there was a rush of gas at the colliery in January 1936.

A pathetic sight also were the two children, daughters of Mr Tuxford. These were left in the house alone as the anxious mother was enquiring that Rotherham Hospital after their father. Mrs Tuxford did not know whether he was at Rotherham Hospital or the Montagu hospital, but such was her anxiety that she could not wait to know for certain. The children did not know what had happened. All they knew was that something had happened at the pit and their father was concerned.

In addition to the dead man, 10 of the injured lived in Rawmarsh and most of them in the Clay Pit Lane district.

A “Times” representative who paid a visit to the district after the disaster found general signs of distress. The dead man, Sales, was a popular personality and the news of his fate was received with great regret. This news was the only definite information available to the relatives and neighbours early on Wednesday evening.

Wives were wondering as to the extent of their husbands injuries and were waiting to know which hospital they were in. One wife visited the pithead as soon as she heard of the disaster, but fainted and had to be taken home.

“This stopped me from going,” said Mrs Griffiths, wife of Tom Griffiths of 102 Clay Pit Lane. “She said it was like a slaughterhouse and I knew it was no use my going.”

Groups of people discuss the calamity and there were various rumours as to the fate of the injured men.

Ensor was grieved at the news of the more serious consequence to his mates, particularly at the death of Sales. “Joe,” he said, “Used to be a fine cricketer we often used to talk of his skill.”

John Griffiths as he was taken from the cage in great pain with a leg injury, thought principally of his brother, Tom Griffiths. “See if Tom is safe,” he said.

Veitch was well known in the district as a Methodist Sunday School superintendent.

News Quickly Spreads

The news of the disaster spread like wildfire throughout Kilnhurst and Swinton during the afternoon. Anxious relatives and friends grouped together at their doors, faces serious, watched the ambulances running seeing to or from the colliery.

Al Swinton representative learnt that Arthur Spencer (50), Thursday, Carlisle Street, Kilnhurst, a married man with five children, one of the most gravely injured, has worked at Kilnhurst colliery since he was a boy, except for a spell at Manvers Main Colliery. His father was killed in an accident at Kilnhurst colliery 44 years ago, and he himself has previously sustained minor injuries. Mrs Spencer told our represented that both her husband and herself a regular members of Bethel Message Church, and she “put her trust and faith in the Lord.”

Charles Pears, 7 Wheatley Rd, Kilnhurst is married and a father. His wife who is an invalid had been sent with her daughter to a convalescent home at Blackpool last week. He is first thought was that is why should not be informed of his accident, but neighbours and relatives sent a telegram to Blackpool calling her back.

Gerrard, the deputy will by whim of chance took another man’s place in the ill-fated cage, insisted that he should be taken up last. The injured men were receiving attention at the pit bottom and been taken back to the surface when an ambulance band turned to Gerard and said, “Come on, it’s your turn now.” But Gerard refused to be taken up until the more seriously injured men were rushed to the surface and sent to hospital.

A Premonition

One of the most amazing stories told our reporter came from Mrs John Davis, who said the night before she had premonitory dream. She had her husband’s mother (long since dead) and her were taken to a large building and conduct to a room when a man lay under what seemed to be white tissue paper.

His face, she said, was ghastly white. Then Mrs Davis told how she working in a very troublesome state of mind. He describes the dream to her husband and he too was worried. She asked him not to go to work but he insisted. Davis as a married son living in Mexborough.

One man was injured in an attempt to pull the miners from the wreckage. He is John Wagstaffe, Tinker Road, Rawmarsh, was struck on the head by something which fell down the shop. He was treated in Rotherham Hospital for a lacerated head wound, but was not detained.

The task of bringing out the injured men presented difficulty immediately after the accident, since the cages in the affected shaft go down to the Silkstone seam, and the other shaft that is shallower. There is a long connecting drift between the two, and the problem was whether to wait for repair work to be carried out in the Silkstone shaft to carry the injured men to the drift. It was decided to make the repairs.

A miner was at the pit bottom at the time of the mishap described how he rushed to the scene are nearing the crash and tore up his shirt into strips to use as bandages.

At the time of the accident Mr T Goldthorpe, one of his Majesty’s Inspector of mines station at Barnsley, was at the pit making a routine inspection, and later arrivals were the Divisional Inspector of Mines, Major H C Humphreys, and the senior inspector of mines, Mr Evans, from Doncaster, who both descended the pit.

Mr Herbert Smith, President of the YMCA also went down, and Canon F.G. Skovell, director of Rawmarsh, and Mrs Skovell were with officials at the pithead. The Rev Harry Woodford (curator Roma) spent Wednesday evening visiting the relatives of the men concerned.

The organisation by means of which ambulances from Sheffield, Rotherham, Mexborough and both were called was commendable, for they arrive within 15 minutes of the crash.

It is understood that an official statement is to be issued by the colliery management, but yesterday morning a private enquiry was held.

The pit did not work during the day, but it is up to resume work today.