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	Individual Details		Individual Details

Age:	21
Died:	12th Oct 1889
Accident:	12th Oct 1889
Year Born:	abt. 1868
Colliery:	St. John's
Company:	Locke and Co.
Occupation:	Hanger on
Notes:	Fell out of cage while descending a shaft
Buried:	[not known]
Category:

The remaining accident, which occasioned the loss of more than one life, took place at St. John's Colliery, near Normanton, the property of Messrs. Locke & Co., on the 12th October.

About 80 men had been lowered to the bottom in the Silkstone shaft, and the last cage load, containing 3 men, was in the act of descending when from some cause the cage tilted and its occupants were precipitated to the bottom. The shaft is 500 yards deep, and the men fell from the cage just below "meetings," or a little more than half way down. One of the horsekeepers, named Spawforth, was in the ascending cage at the time, and he stated that nothing unusual occurred until he had passed the other cage in the shaft, and that then he was stopped, and remained in that position for about an hour and a half. He saw the lights of the men in the descending cage as it passed him, and was positive that no collision between the cages took place. Binks, the engineman, who had been so employed for 15 years, said the usual examination of the ropes, &c. was made about 5 o'clock, before he began to lower the workmen. When the last 3 men were descending, and when the indicator showed that the cage was about in the middle of the shaft, he noticed the engines were reducing in speed and that the rope was becoming slack. He at once stopped the engine. The banksman, who was at the top of the shaft, in his proper place, at the time, could throw no light on the cause of the accident. An examination of the shaft was made by the shaftmen the night previous, and the report in the book stated that all was right.

From examination of the shaft made subsequently, the face of one of the conductors seemed to have been scraped by the slipper attached to one end of the descending cage from a point about 13 feet above "meetings," the conductor was broken, and about 9 feet below "meetings" about 1½ inch was cut away from the face of the conductor, which was also then broken. For the next 9 feet the conductor was displaced, and at that point, that is about 18 feet below "meetings," the cage was lying on its broad side with its bottom towards the middle of the shaft and resting on the iron stays. The bolts of the conductor are countersunk about an inch, the conductors themselves being 5-inch pitch pine. The cage itself was not much injured. It was bent about 2 inches upwards at the slipper which cut the conductor, and the side was slightly bulged. That side next the middle of the shift was not marked anywhere, and did not seem to have been touched, which corroborated the statement of the horsekeeper that the cages had not collided. The oscillation of the cages is very slight.

After a careful inquiry, the jury at the inquest returned a verdict that the three men were killed by the overturning of the cage, but how the accident was brought about there was no evidence to show. Supposing the men were all standing at one end of the cage it is possible that this might cause it to weigh down a little at that end and so cause the slipper at the opposite end to scrape the conductor. There were bars in the cage, one at either side, for persons to hold on by.

• 1889 Mines Inspectors Report (C 6015), Yorkshire and Lincolnshire District (No. 5) by Frank N. Wardell, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 18 Where to find this report
• 1889 Mines Inspectors Report (C 6015), Yorkshire and Lincolnshire District (No. 5) by Frank N. Wardell, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 30, Accident Number: 82 Where to find this report

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