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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	28th January 1858
Colliery:	Little Chilton
Company:	R. W. Jackson, Esq.
Cause:	(See description below)
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

No. 8 accident, in the appended list, occurred at Little Chilton Colliery, near Ferry Hill, on the 28th of January 1858.

In the evening, after working operations had ceased at the pit, George Birst, a young man of 22 years of age, one of the workmen belonging to the colliery, happened to be near the top of the shaft in company with some women or girls, who, like himself, had no business there at the time; and he, in sport, was inviting them to get into the cage, which he fancied was resting at a proper level for their doing so, and himself attempted to get into it, but he unfortunately appears to have mistaken the bottom of the cage (which was a few feet above the top of the pit) for its top, which he might readily do, as the pit was an upcast, and the smoke from the furnace rendered the shaft very obscure, and the consequence was that he stepped into the open shaft, fell to the bottom, and was killed.

No. 8 accident shows the desirableness of using precautionary measures to prevent persons approaching pits when they have no duties to take them there. Accidents Nos. 33 and 72 show the danger attending persons signalling for themselves to be drawn up shafts, and indicate the necessity of due precautions being taken and arrangements made to guard against the practice.

Source:

1858 Mines Inspectors Report

	Birst, George, aged 22, Hewer, fell down shaft whilst playing
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