A ‘MINER’ DETOUR
By David Evans. March 2003
It began on a cold wet weekend sometime after my Grandmother
had died. We had sorted out her belongings and I was just going through some
papers and personal effects when I came across a small prayer book. I opened it
up and saw the name Alice Shaw written inside. I found out from my mother that
Alice was the wife of my Great Grandfather Charles Louis Evans. As I flicked
through the pages a small very faded newspaper cutting fluttered slowly to the
ground. I picked it up and read with interest the following: -
Clay Cross. The Late Colliery Accident
On Tuesday, an inquest was held at the Victoria Hotel, before Mr. Busby, on the
body of Francis Shaw, a coal miner, who died on Sunday evening from injuries
received through a fall of Bind on the 27th ult in the No. 3 pit of the Clay
Cross Company. Mr. W.B. Jackson, general manager and Mr. J.D. Croudace,
certified manager, represented the Clay Cross Company. There was also present
Mr. Stokes, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Mines.
The first witness was the son who was with his father the deceased during their
imprisonment in the No. 3 pit of the Clay Cross Company on the 27th ult. He said
that Mr. Dunn the underviewer let the deceased the work they were engaged in and
especially cautioned the deceased to make themselves safe. They commenced
working about seven o’clock and rested about 9 o’clock for their lunch and soon
afterwards were visited by Mr. W. Dunn the underviewer who told them to be sure
and make themselves secure. They were engaged in narrowing a road that was ten
feet wide between the bars from a double to a single road when the roof gave way
displacing the timber and a quantity fell on them. That would be about 10
o’clock. They could hear persons passing within 30 or 40 yards and he (the
witness) called out to them but they did not hear and it was not until about
12.45 that they were found. There was plenty of timber at hand but they did not
think it was required.
The deceased was 47 years of age and had been employed in the same pit for 22
years. Mr. Dunn the underviewer said that on the same morning at 9 a.m. knowing
the deceased was a very daring man, he said “Frank, be very careful and make
yourself safe”. The deceased replied “We are alright”. He told the deceased to
be careful not because of the nature of the roof but because the deceased was a
very daring and hardworking man. Mr. Croudace, the certified manager wished to
contradict a statement that the deceased was imprisoned for 5 or 6 hours.
A verdict of “Accidental death” was returned.
There was no date on the cutting and no reference to which newspaper it had been
taken from.
I was fascinated. Who was this Francis? Where did he fit in to the family? What
relation was he to Alice? What year did the incident take place? I had to find
out.
I had only recently made a start on my family history and had decided to
concentrate on the ‘Evans’ side only as I was aware how time consuming it can
be. However in light of the interesting find I decided to make a small detour.
I started by sending for the marriage certificate of my Great Grandfather
Charles Louis Evans. This showed him married to Alice Shaw at the Baptist
Chapel, Chesterfield in 1888. Alice’s father was given as ‘Francis Shaw’
deceased and his occupation as Miner.
I then sent for Alice’s birth certificate, which again showed her father as
‘Francis’ I seemed to be on the right track. I then obtained copies of the 1871
and 1881 census records for Clay Cross showing Francis with his wife Emma and
their family including Alice and the rest of their children including a son
James who could have been the one mentioned in the accident report.
Francis was still alive aged 42 on the 1881 census but had obviously died by the
time Alice married in 1888. This narrowed my search down to a period of seven
years. The next step was to look through the St. Catherine’s House records for
Francis’ death. I found a suitable match and sent off for the certificate. When
it arrived it confirmed what the newspaper cutting had said.
Cause of death was given as ‘accidentally injured through a fall of bind in the
coal mine’ and the certificate had been received from Charles George Busby –
Coroner for Derbyshire after an inquest held on the ninth March 1886.
Francis had died on the Seventh March 1886 at the Clay Cross Company’s Hospital.
I wanted to know even more. What newspaper did the cutting come from? Was there
any more information? I decided to make another trip to the Local Studies
Library at Matlock to look through old newspapers of the time. I was informed
that the most likely source would have been the ‘Derbyshire Times’
I started looking through issues for March 1886, which proved quite easy as it
was only a weekly edition and soon found that the cutting in the prayer book had
been taken from the copy dated Saturday 13th March 1886. I was thrilled. I had
done what I set out to do. But I wanted more. The cutting only referred to the
inquest, could there have been earlier reports specific to the accident?
I looked through the editions two weeks either side of the one I already had and
found the following dated Saturday March 6th 1886.
Colliery Accident at Clay Cross
Miraculous escape of two persons
On Saturday an accident happened in the No. 3 pit (Tupton seam) of the Clay
Cross Company by which two persons, father and son, were for several hours
buried alive, many tons of roof falling upon them. It appears that on the day in
question these persons, Frank and James Shaw, were engaged on the road some
three-quarters of a mile from the pit bottom, converting a double to a single
road. There was a good supply of ‘caps and stoops,’ or props and bars, set there
at the time, but over them was some four or five feet of bind and a large vacant
place.
The two were engaged in making this place more secure. The pit being off work,
and they being the only persons in that part of the mine, will account for the
time the men were imprisoned. They were seen all right at about nine o’clock,
but nothing more was known of them until between one and two o’clock, when,
after having been missed, they were found literally buried in bind, many tons of
which had fallen. No time was lost in procuring a staff of men to go to the
rescue. Fresh timber was placed to prevent further loose bind sliding down. The
son was the first to be liberated, and, strange to state, was able with
assistance to walk out of his living tomb. To liberate the father was a task of
far more difficulty and anxiety, involved about three hours of incessant labour
of the willing hands present before the man was rescued. He was, of course, very
much crushed and bruised, and was at once taken to the company’s hospital. In
his case, however, no bones were broken. Both are doing was well as can be
expected. The affair caused considerable excitement in the town, and the only
wonder is both were not killed. They would be buried between five and six hours.
It would appear that the accident must have happened on the previous Saturday,
the 27th February and he survived in the hospital for eight days before dying of
the injuries he sustained. One can only wonder at the pain and suffering he and
his family must have gone through in those eight days. And what must James his
son have been thinking, knowing that he had been saved but not his father.
Francis was buried in Clay Cross cemetery, which is not that far from where I
live, so I decided to pay a visit and try and find his last resting place, just
so I could place the final piece in the jigsaw so to speak. I found more than I
was expecting. The headstone was very impressive, far better than something a
poor mining family would have been able to afford. This had to have been paid
for by Francis’s employers the ‘Clay Cross Coal Company’. His wife Emma had been
buried with him along with their young son Francis who had died aged 3 years.
Also buried with him, albeit 31 years later, was his son James who had been in
the accident with him. It seemed strange that he should have chosen to be buried
with his father after this amount of time especially as he had a wife and family
of his own but then again it seemed somehow fitting that they should be together
again underground for one last time.
The Headstone reads: -
FRANCIS SHAW
Beloved husband of Emma Shaw who departed this life March 7th 1886 aged 48.
His end was peace.
Also the above named Emma Shaw who died July 2nd 1905 aged 61 years.
Also Francis the beloved son of the above who died June 1st 1879 aged 3 years.
Also James Shaw. Died December 24th 1917 aged 51.
Gone but not forgotten.
So what have I learned about the life of Francis Shaw? My detour has taken me
right back to his birth on the 22nd August 1838 in Wensley, the son of George
and Sarah Shaw (nee Taylor). I have found out about his brothers and sisters and
his marriage to Emma Brimlow on the 28th March 1864. He started work as a Lead
miner in the Wensley area before moving to the coal mines in Clay Cross, no
doubt to give his new wife and himself a good start in life. He was obviously
just like any other man of that period, working hard, in what were without doubt
very harsh conditions, trying to provide his family with a half decent way of
life. I have found out about all of his children, especially my Great
Grandmother Alice, and although I cannot thank God for his untimely death I can
thank him for his life, for without it I would not be here. It has been a
slightly longer detour than intended but I have to say a most enjoyable one.
As the Headstone reads, ‘Gone but not forgotten’
All thanks to a small prayer book, a faded newspaper cutting and the love of his
daughter who kept and cherished a small reminder of her beloved father’s
untimely and tragic death.
Published with the kind permission of David and the
Derbyshire Family History Society who
published this article in their June 2003 magazine.