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	Individual Details		Individual Details

Age:	Boy
Died:	2nd Mar 1854
Accident:	2nd Mar 1854
Year Born:	abt. 1854
Colliery:	Sykes
Company:	Terry and Co.
Occupation:
Notes:	Falling down the shaft
Buried:	[not known]
Category:

Accident No. 70 in the List.

Falling down the shaft at Sykes' Colliery, near Leeds.

Four young boys were sent down this pit on the cage. When they reached "meetings," they came in collision with the ascending cage, and two of them (aged ten years and eleven years respectively) were dashed to the bottom, and killed.

The shaft, 9 feet diameter and 100 yards deep, was furnished with iron conductors, but they were not well tightened, and they vibrated considerably; the middle rods were too near to each other, and the cages rubbed against the irregular and unwalled sides of the pit, which was too small for the pumping gear and a pair of ropes. The winding engine was driven at great speed. Little boys when descending were not accompanied by men ; as many as five went down together, and the two cages frequently came in contact as they passed at "meetings."

The steward acknowledged that the shaft was in an unsafe state, and he had advised his masters to repair it, and either to enlarge its diameter or to lessen the size of the corves and cages ; and it was obvious that economical considerations alone had prevented his advice from being followed.

The coroner's jury endorsed the steward's recommendation, and I urged the proprietors forthwith to act upon it, and in future to send the boys into the pit along with the men ; to reduce the usual speed of the engine one half when persons were ascending or descending ; and in other respects to improve the condition and discipline of the mine.

• 1854 Mines Inspectors Report, by Charles Morton, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 69
• 1854 Mines Inspectors Report, by Charles Morton, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 78, Accident Number: 70

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