Bradford Pit accidents

[violet]

Does anyone have information or pointers to internet sites about accidents in the Bradford Pit (Manchester) around 1939?

[0racle]

Well, Violet, I don't have any information on accidents in 1939, but when I was a young man I worked down Bradford pit on Roger East Sevens, and we had a serious accident in 1953. This happened about mid-day, when the main-shaft winding house caught fire and both cages plummeted to the bottom, a distance of almost three quarters of a mile. In so doing, the cages ripped out the electrical wiring for the pit, which meant that we had to walk, mostly uphill, from the coal face to the bottom of the man riding shaft. The cage in this shaft would only carry 4 men at a time, and as the electrical signalling system was rendered useless a man had to be positioned half way up the shaft in an old working. Each time the cage was ready to be hauled up, a man at the bottom of the shaft banged on an iron water-pipe, and the second man then relayed this message to the top of the shaft by banging the pipe again. This was extremely slow, and we were down there for some considerable time. I was among the last to be taken up, and I must have been down for about 24 hours or so.
The Manchester Evening News didn't help. They came out with a sensational headline "500 trapped in pit blaze!". My mother nearly had a heart attack when she saw it.
Oddly enough, I had had a dream of this event the night before and mentioned it to my mother that morning. She told me not to go in if I wasn't happy, but I shrugged it off. In the dream I had got into the cage with a pal, Alfie Haynes. And, guess what? Next morning Alfie was there beside me as we went down, and I told him about it. Talk about co-incidence!
Luckily, no-one was injured during this time.
Not really an answer to your query, but thought you might like to know.
Eric

[sandra]

Hi

Ian Winstaley has a great site about mining and has the national searchable Mining Death and Disaster's database. I have used it in the past and found it excellent - Ian has published a number of books on Mining and is considered somewhat of an expert.

Here is the URL

www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/home/

Good luck

Sandra

[Gerard Lodge]

I had a look at the (Manchester) Guardian and Observer on line archive at
guardian.co.uk/archive

It only includes two listings in The Guardian for anywhere remotely close to the period that you are looking at:
Wednesday, January 16, 1929
Page: 6
and
Monday, November 22, 1948
Page: 6

The first report refers to a roof collapse in which one man was injured and the second to a miner leaving work who fell to his death down a mineshaft.

A similar service( but free of charge) to the above will shortly be available at Manchester Central Library. It may be available in other libraries also.

Gerard

[violet]

Thank you so much Sandra. I found exactly what I wanted, the first time I've found anything about my uncle's accident. I am thrilled.

[sandra]

Hi Violet


Glad it has helped. I know it was a great help to me when I was trying to find out about mining deaths in my family.

Be well

Sandra