Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	10th September 1857
Colliery:	Kelloe Winning
Cause:	In sinking pit
Lives Lost:	2

No. 55 accident was in a pit which was being sunk, when one of the workmen attached a part of the pumping apparatus, called a "strum," to the winding rope, and came up the pit, sitting astride of it himself, to guide it and prevent its getting jammed.

On reaching the landing place near the top of the pit, the strum had got swung around out of its proper position so as to become jammed in the narrow opening necessary at the landing place, and from its not having been properly attached to the winding rope it became detached, and both it and the sinker fell from the top to the bottom of the pit, causing his death and that of another sinker, who, with others that escaped unhurt, were at work in the bottom of the pit at the time.

No. 55 accident in the list shows that it is most desirable that no workman should be in the bottom of a sinking pit when cumbersome materials are suspended in it, and that the greatest care should be taken to have such materials properly attached to the ropes by which they are suspended.

Source:

1857 Mines Inspectors Report

See also: A1857-94

	Byers, Gilbert, Sinker, shaft accident
	Robinson, Francis, Sinker, shaft accident
	All names found
	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 .

 

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