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	Individual Details		Individual Details

Age:	31
Died:	30th Jan 1873
Accident:	30th Jan 1873
Year Born:	abt. 1842
Colliery:	Byers Green
Company:	Bolckow, Vaughan, and Co.
Occupation:	Sinker
Notes:	fell off cradle down pit
Buried:	[not known]
Category:

Whilst ascending or descending.

Two lives were lost by accident No. 10 under this head. It occurred at Byers Green Colliery in a shaft which was being sunk there. Seven men, including the two deceased, were on a cradle suspended in the shaft, employed in wedging some tubbing. The cradle (a circular platform very nearly of the same diameter as the pit) was in two equal parts connected with strong iron hinges underneath, and was hung (or should have been) upon six chains, three on each side of the central division. By some unaccountable carelessness and want of judgment on the part of the person in charge the two side chains (marked A A. on the sketch) had not been attached, and thus so soon as one of the men stepped to one side, as at B, the cradle collapsed, and precipitated six of the workmen, a depth of 18 fathoms, to the bottom; they fell into water, otherwise it is exceedingly probable the whole of them would have been killed, as it was four of them were very little worse, the seventh man seized the chains of the cradle and saved himself. It will be seen by the sketch that it is impossible it could have ended otherwise, as by the neglect of attaching the side chains, about which the chargeman had been warned, the only line of suspension, or fulcrum, was through the points C C, so that the moment a weight, the weight of one of the workmen, was placed at B, one half of the cradle would naturally upset, the hinges underneath causing the other half to upset also, as shown on the sketch. Had the side chains been attached the accident could not have occurred. It is not very frequently that a cradle of this kind is used, but generally when it is, in addition to the side chains, two bars of iron are bolted across at right angles to the line of division, thus rendering it doubly secure.

After a very long inquiry by the Coroner, assisted by myself, the jury separated without being able to agree upon a verdict. Seven of them, as I was informed afterwards, being wishful to return a verdict of manslaughter against the chargeman, which I think he would have deserved.

• 1873 Mines Inspectors Report (C. 1056), South Durham, Westmoreland, and Cleveland District by James Willis, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 12, Accident Number: 10 Where to find this report
• 1873 Mines Inspectors Report (C. 1056), South Durham, Westmoreland, and Cleveland District by James Willis, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 6 Where to find this report

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