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John Thomas Pugsley
| Age: | 21 |
| Died: | 15th Dec 1898 |
| Accident: | 15th Dec 1898 |
| Year Born: | abt. 1877 |
| Colliery: | Blackhill |
| Company: | Consett Iron Co., Ltd. |
| Occupation: | Hewer |
| Notes: | he was hewing when a large stone fell from the roof and killed him |
| Buried: | [not known] |
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| Description | |
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No. 557 on the list occurred at Blackhill Colliery, belonging to the Consett Iron Company, Limited, on December 15th, causing the death of a hewer.
A place had been driven through a pillar, and another place turned out of this so as to allow of the coal being brought back in lifts.
The stone, in the first place, all the way had been very bad, owing to the place being between two faults or hitches.
On the day previous to the accident the hewer, who worked in this place in the opposite shift to the one deceased was in, had taken the coal down at the in-bye side, and, as the stone was bad, took it down at a hitch leader, and this hitch or fault ran into the one at the other side of the place at a point in the stone above.
When the deceased man went in he came further down than where the other hewer had been hewing, and left a piece of coal between him and the part taken out the day before, and set a prop and head-tree under the stone to keep it up. He had got the coal out for about 4 feet 6 inches, and wanted a few shovel-fulls to complete a tub, and was hewing some of the piece of coal he had left in to keep the stone up, when the stone suddenly fell away, canted the prop he had set and killed him.
The deputies say they told deceased not to take the piece of coal out under the stone, and if he had not done so the stone would not have fallen; the cause of it doing so was taking away the only support it had.
If a stay or stays had been set against the stone it could not have fallen before the deceased had time to get out of the way, but it does not appear to have occurred to either the deputies or men that these were necessary.
The coal was a support, but the stone had been very near falling, as he took very little off the coal before it fell and killed him.
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| Mines Inspectors Report Entry | |
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- 1898 Mines Inspectors Report (C 9264), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 16 Where to find this report
- 1898 Mines Inspectors Report (C 9264), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 41, Accident Number: 557 Where to find this report
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| Researchers | |
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