Tuesday 3 June 1919 promised to be no glorious early summer day in Batley. The forecast was for very cool and windy weather, though the workers hurrying to their jobs in the town’s mills and pits under the lightening early morning sky must have felt thankful that at least it was dry.1 Amongst them was 39-year-old Primrose Hill resident Norman Brooke, on his way to his work at Messrs. J. Critchley and Sons West End Colliery.
A winding-engineman there, he started work at 6.30am. It was a very familiar job to him. He first took charge of a winding engine back in January 1907, and had undertaken the job at intervals ever since. He started work at West End Colliery in December 1912, and, other than a break of just over five years for Army service commencing in September 1914, he had been there ever since. Other than a bout of malaria whilst in Salonica, he survived the Great War unscathed, returning once more to his customary West End colliery surface job in February 1919.2
The start of his working day went smoothly. He followed his usual routine of testing the cage which would take the men and tubs down and up the shaft of the coal mine’s Beeston seam, a depth of 218 yards (654 feet). Everything seemed normal when, a little before 7am, he began lowering the cage for what he estimated to be the eighth or tenth time. The one-deck cage contained ten pit-workers ready to begin their shift, a mix of bye-workers and young hurriers. Hurriers were the lads who conveyed the coal tubs from pass-bye to the face where the coal was being hewn out. Once there they often helped the hewer to fill tubs, before returning them to the shaft ready to be transported back up to the surface. It was often a starter job for them in the pit.
Initially as the down-cage made its descent, and the up-cage rose, things seemed normal. When the indicator showed the down-cage had reached just past halfway in the shaft, Brooke began to apply the brake. But instead of the brake biting to decelerate its descent, the cage gathered speed. Brooke quickly put the engine into reverse. It did slow down the descending cage, but not enough to stop it bumping heavily as it hit the wooden boards at the bottom. Meanwhile the up-cage stopped around three feet higher than its correct level.
Harry Johnson, who worked as onsetter at the colliery, witnessed the accident. His job entailed putting the full coal tubs into the cage to go to the surface, and removing the empty ones arriving at the bottom ready for the hewers to fill. He saw nothing unusual until the cage came into view at the bottom of the shaft, when it fell heavily onto the boards.
One of the cage occupants, 16-year-old Gilbert Woods, a hurrier who lived at Howden Clough, recalled later:
We went down as usual until we got to the bottom, when there was a hard bump, which threw us about the cage.3
Johnson opened the cage door to find the men huddled together. With the only safety feature being a bar to hold on to, they had been severely knocked about when the cage hit the ground. Someone called to him “We can’t walk out, Harry; you will have to lift us out.”4
Johnson quickly obtained help. Fortunately the winding mechanism for the cage had not been thrown out of gear, so the men were easily brought to the surface. Eight of the occupants sustained injuries, with five unable to get out of the cage without assistance. The eight received first aid until the ambulance arrived. The wait was thankfully short. Superintendant Harry Greenwood, and his two assistants, J. Almond and E. Punyer, turned up in Batley’s new motor-ambulance.5 Within an hour of reaching the surface all the injured had been transported, in two journeys, to Batley and District Hospital.
The eight injured are listed below. Half were associated with St Mary of the Angels, and I have included some additional details for them.
- George Henry Gavaghan (23), a colliery bye-worker, of 8, Fleming Place, Batley, who sustained injuries to his left leg. He was a St Mary’s parishioner. Born in Batley on 12 February 1896, he was the son of John and Mary Gavaghan (née Trainer). His siblings included Michael and William Henry. At the time of the accident he lived with his parents. In 1925 he married Mary Teresa Gallagher.
- Clifford Gill (15), a hurrier who lived at North Bank Road, Batley, who had injures to his left leg.
- Thomas Hunt (16), a hurrier living at 15, Beck Lane, Carlinghow, he too was a St Mary’s parishioner. He fractured his left thigh in the accident. Born in Batley on 5 May 1903, his parents were William and Elizabeth Hunt (née Ellis). His brothers were Joseph, John, William and James.
- Thomas Leach (15), a hurrier of 44 Victoria Street Carlinghow, who suffered shock. Another St Mary’s lad, he was born in Batley on 23 September 1903. His parent were Michael and Bridget Leach (née Connell). His eldest brother, John, served with the 1st/4th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and died of wounds 14 months earlier. John is commemorated on the St Mary’s War Memorial. Other siblings were Nora, Patrick, Edward, James and Michael. Thomas married Norah Allsopp at St Mary’s church in 1927.
- Joseph Roberts (15), a hurrier of Carr Street, Batley Carr, who suffered shock and back injuries.
- Joseph Rowe (17), a hurrier who lived at Birch Street, Carlinghow, who suffered shock.
- Gilbert Woods (21) a hurrier who lived at Leeds Road, Howden Clough, who fractured his right patella.
The eighth man was Edward Whelan (25), a colliery bye-worker who sustained a fractured left leg.6 Born at the end of 1893, he was one of William and Susannah Whelan’s (née Wooley) twelve children. William, a boiler maker, was the son of Irish immigrants. He married Susannah, from Ashton under Lyne, at the Dewsbury Catholic Church of St Paulinus on 23 September 1882.7
The couple initially lived in Dewsbury, before moving to Batley Carr, in the parish of St Joseph’s, where Edward was born. Edward is mentioned in connection with the annual Whitsuntide procession and festivities of St Joseph’s RC School’s in 1907, when he won third prize in the 100 yards handicap flat race for boys from 12-16. His prize was a swimming costume.8
Edward grew up in Batley Carr and by 1911 was working as a piecener. Before switching to colliery work, he also was employed as a miller and scourer for John Fenton and Sons., Ltd, woollen manufacturers, at their Headfield Mills in Savile Town. He was granted exemption from military service whilst working here, is health being deemed as unsatisfactory. A decision which was upheld when reviewed in early May 1917.9
He married Annie McDonald in her parish church of St Mary of the Angels on 1 June 1916. The couple settled in Batley with their son, John Edward, born later that year, on 1 November. Daughter Annie followed on 13 February 1918. By the time of the accident the Whelan family were living at 14, Wilson’s Buildings, Bradford Road, Batley.
Described as a well-respected worker at West End Colliery, Edward remembered entering the cage ready to descend the shaft. After that, nothing. He had no recollection of the accident.10
From the outset he was the most badly injured, with his condition described as serious. Miss Emma Cann, the matron at Batley and District Hospital where he was treated, reported that on admission he was found to be suffering from a compound dislocation and fracture of his left leg.11
On Thursday 10 July, over a month after the accident, with gangrene feared, the decision was taken to amputate his leg. He died that night as a result of shock.12
In the aftermath of the pit cage accident, rumours abounded. One theory put forward was Norman Brooke suffered shell-shock in the war and this contributed to the accident. This was vehemently denied by Brooke at the inquest which opened at Batley and District Hospital on Saturday, 12 July with the formal identification process, and concluded with all the evidence on Wednesday 16 July.13
Other pieces of evidence included this was Brooke’s first ever mishap as a winding-engineman; that the brake was perfectly capable of dealing with the load in the cage on that fateful descent; that without the action taken by Brooke to put the engine into reverse the bump would have been more severe; that the winding ropes were greased about a fortnight before the accident; and that the brakes were examined by an engineer after the accident and found to be alright.14
The only explanation Brooke could think of was that some grease had fallen either from the roof, or flown off one of the ropes on to the outer brake block, which meant the brake would not bite and caused it to slip. He had never known this happen before though.15
On hearing all the evidence the jury reached a verdict of “Accidental death”, with which the Coroner, Mr. C. J. Haworth, agreed.
Edward was buried in Batley cemetery on 13 July, in a service conducted by St Mary’s parish priest Fr. Peter McBride.16
Less than three months later Annie gave birth to the couple’s third child, a daughter named Nellie. Annie remarried in the latter part of 1921.
Postscript:
Finally a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, but it does cost me money to operate. In the current difficult economic climate I am considering if I can continue to afford to keep running it as a free resource, especially as I have to balance the research time against work commitments.
If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click here to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
Thank you.
Footnotes:
1. Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire Evening Post, 3 June 1919.
2. Batley Reporter, 18 July 1919 and Batley News, 19 July 1919.
3. Batley Reporter, 18 July 1919.
4. Ibid.
5. Batley Reporter, 6 June 1919 and Batley News, 7 June 1919.
6. Some accounts record his name as Wheelan, and his age as 22.
7. Dewsbury Reporter, 30 September 1882. Name incorrectly reported as Susan Morley. Cross referenced with GRO Indexes where name is recorded as Susan Wooley.
8. Batley News, 24 May 1907.
9. Batley News, 5 May 1917.
10. Batley News, 19 July 1919.
11. Ibid.
12. Batley Reporter, 18 July 1919 and Batley News, 19 July 1919. Note Thursday, which is recorded as the day he died, was 10 July 1919. This date corresponds with his headstone. However in the Family Notices column in the Batley News of 19 July, Edward Whelan’s death is recorded as 11 July 1919. I have not obtained his death certificate to confirm which is the correct date.
13. Batley Reporter, 18 July 1919.
14. Batley Reporter, 18 July 1919 and Batley News, 19 July 1919
15. Ibid.
16. Batley Cemetery records.
Other Sources:
1. 1939 Register.
2. Censuses, England & Wales – Various.
3. GRO Indexes – Births, Marriages and Deaths.
4. Military Records – Various.
5. Newspapers – as mentioned in piece. But also Yorkshire Evening Post, 3 June 1919; and Leeds Mercury, 4 June 1919, 14 June 1919 and 17 June 1919.
4. Parish Registers – Various.
PastToPresentGenealogy 