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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	17th April 1850
Colliery:	Black Boy
Company:
Cause:	Fell down shaft
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

The following report appeared in the Durham Advertiser on 26 April :

An inquest was held in the schoolroom at the Black Boy Colliery at Bishop Auckland on the 19th. inst., before W. Trotter Esq., Coroner, on view of the body of Benjamin Holdsworth aged 66. It appeared that about half past three o’clock on Tuesday morning the 17th. inst., the deceased had descended the pit shaft in a cage alone to begin work. When the cage got to the bottom, the brakesman, Thomas Findlay, waited about five minutes for the accustomed signal but he heard none and therefore drew the cage gently up again. In the course of a few minutes the other men went down in the same way and one of them, John Turner, found the deceased lying at the bottom of the shaft on his side, with the cage on his legs. He seemed unable to speak and was immediately removed to bank and taken home. On examination, his back was broken, and his ribs and breast bones much injured and he had a cut on the back of his head. He continued insensible and died on the morning of the 18th. There was no person at the bottom at the time and it was supposed that on getting out of the cage, he had fallen to the bottom of the shaft, and the cage had afterwards come upon him. Verdict — accidentally killed.

Source:

Text kindly provided by Jim Grainger from his research into early newspapers (primarily the Durham Advertiser and Durham Chronicle).

	Holdsworth, Benjamin (died: 18 Apr 1850) , aged 66, fell down shaft
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	Some of the names of mining fatalities on this web site have been kindly provided by Jim Grainger from his research into early newspapers (primarily the Durham Advertiser and Durham Chronicle) and are marked with .

26 Apr 1850

News (Durham Advertiser)

 

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