Staffordshire Colliery Deaths

[oldcourtchick]

My greatgrandfather James Cope died at the Chatterley Colliery Tunstall  in 1884, according to the Coal Mining History Resource Centre. Cause of death was "Fall of bass". Can anyone tell me what this means, please? Thanks

Hi I think this James Cope is my 2nd great grand uncle..decenedent from William Cope and Sarah Mayer??

[kazfoster]

My Granddad was a Pit Pony lad at 13 (with his younger Brother)
The one thing he would not let my Dad do was to go down there!
The dust killed both of my Grandads in the end!

One of them drank - supposedly because he had to watch his best mate die in a pit "fall".


One of my memories from childhood is the ground shaking - one of the huge lifts fell all the way down the shaft (luckily empty) at Trentham pit - now all there is left is houses and shops there.  They didn't even leave the pit head as a memorial.  Stoke is dead now - all those brave men slipping out of living memory - we should remind our kids regularly!!!

[wrjones]

At the risk of repeating myself in this thread;In the words of the song;The story,it shall never grow old!

Regards
William Russell Jones.

[Mytlemeboy]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and am trying to find details of an accident which killed my grandfather Thomas Keegan of Tunstall. He died on Feb 1st 1923 at Birchenwood Colliery, Kidsgrove. As he was the only one killed, it therefore doesn't qualify as a mining 'tragedy' (I'm sure his widow and 6 children would have more than a problem with). However, details are nil as far as I see apart from a 4 line announcement in the Evening Sentinel (Feb 3 1923).

Anyone out there who can elucidate?

[franh1946]

If yours is the Thomas Keegan who lived at 54 Newfield Street Tunstall he actually died in the North Staffordshire Infirmary, according to the National Probate Register, which might be why his death isn't listed anywhere as a mining death. He may have been taken ill, rather than suffer an accident. Otherwise I'm sure that his death, like my ggg's lone death would be listed on the North Staffs Miners site. If it was a mining accident, there would have been an inquest which would have been reported in the Staffordshire Sentinel a few days after his death. Good luck, Fran

[Mytlemeboy]

Many thanks for your reply, Fran. Indeed, that would be a possibility, however my mother did tell me that he had died in an accident at the colliery. She being only a child at the time, it might be that this was the story which was told to the siblings in the family.

I will investigate further. Thank you again,

MG

[mshrmh]

If Otherwise I'm sure that his death, like my ggg's lone death would be listed on the North Staffs Miners site.

IIRC as Myrtlemeboy (welcome to RootsChat by the way) implies the site listed accidents with multiple fatalities when I first saw it, some time ago - things may have changed since, but it seems still to be gathering data.

As I assume their sources are newspaper reports, gravestones & other memorials some are likely to be missed; I've a relative (death certificate after inquest, but no newspaper report) not listed.

The death certificate would be the way to find out if it the cause was an accident - he may have survived long enough to go to hospital........

[Mytlemeboy]

I have taken a look at the BMD column in the Staffs Evening Sentinel of Sat Feb 3, 1923 at my library (micro fische) which states he 'met his death at Birchenwood Colliery on Feb 1st'. Quite interesting, your comment, however - I never thought of him possibly being taken from his workplace to hospital due to illness. The newspaper listing goes on to say that internment 'will be on Monday at 1pm', merely 4 days after he died and certainly too soon to involve an inquest.

As a consequence, I will certainly obtain a copy of his DC from the local Regsiter Office which will give cause of death. Once again, many thanks for your input and I will certainly pass on the findings if it transpires his death was caused by an accident at Birchenwood. M

[franh1946]

The inquest would have been held as soon as possible. James Cope died on the 1st, and the results of the inquest were in the paper on 4th. If you do find it was an accidental death, do let John Lumsdon, of North Staffs Miners, know. He will add it to his spreadsheet. Fran