Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	20th June 1892
Colliery:	Eston (Ironstone)
Cause:	(See description below)
Lives Lost:	1

No. 2 on the list occurred at Eston Mines belonging to Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan, & Co., Limited, on the 20th of June, about 9.30 a.m., causing the death of George Ditchburn, a miner.

The man who was working with deceased at the time of the accident, stated at the inquest :— "We went to work at 6 o'clock, and the accident occurred about 9.30 a.m. I was drilling a hole standing on a ladder, and deceased was breaking up stone ready to fill. I heard an unusual noise, and shouted to Ditchburn to get out of the way. He was in the act of rising from his work when a piece of stone, weighing about half a ton, fell and knocked him down. We had fired no shots. This was the first shift worked after the Durham strike, and the mine had been idle for fourteen weeks. We examined this particular stone before commencing work and thought it was perfectly safe."

This accident was no doubt the result of the stone becoming loose and treacherous during the time the mine was standing idle. Men had been sent round to take all the loose stone down before the shift commenced, and they had taken some out in front of the place which fell, and thought they had left it perfectly sound and good.

Source:

1892 Mines Inspectors Report (C 6986), Durham District (No. 4) by Thomas Bell, H.M. Inspector of Mines, from a copy held in the Scottish Mining Museum, Newtongrange, Midlothian.

	Ditchburn, George, aged 25, Miner, a fall of stone took place from the side near to the top of seam and crushed him to death
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