whittle colliery drift belt incident
Hi I was interested to know if anyone can remember what year the incident happened at whittle colliery, when several men doing fore shift got injured going down the stationary drift belt. I was also present at the incident as I was working at the mine, but have been unable to recall what year this was
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I can remember it, but not the year. I cut the article on it out of the Gazette at the time but can't find the cutting! The newspaper headline was "Helter Skelter Horror Ride" or something similar. The drift man-riding set was broken down or otherwise not available and everyone on that shift had to walk down the drift. A few men decided that it would be possible to slide down the cable belt rather than walk but things went badly wrong and they went into an uncontrollable slide at high speed, and some were badly injured.
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Found this when looking for belt accident,
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Fatality list for whittle
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We think it was probably 1983.
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I would agree with Janwhin, 1983, Norman Fuller and Norman Goward were two of those injured?
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As well as Norman there was Ken Goward.
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it was Ken I was thinking of Janet
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Hi Davey, my Dad has just been round and confirmed these were the men involved. He was one of the Deputies involved and applied first aid to Titch.
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Wasn't 'Titch' from the Gowards too? |
Ken's uncle by marriage apparently :)
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I've been 'collecting' WW1 material from the Gazette today and had a look for this incident. The date was Sunday October 31st 1982 [Gazette published Friday 5th November 1982, referring to 'sunday night' ]
the headline was Overtime ban blamed as pitmen injured in 'horror ride' that headline I referred to in an earlier post must have been in the Evening Chronicle or the Journal and not the Northumberland Gazette. |
I think the man-riding set had to be tested with dead weights and a brake & overspeed test done on the drift hauler once a week. With the overtime ban this would not be done during its normal time slot at the weekend, thus leaving it for the sunday night fore shift fitters to do.
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I am new to this site and was reading through various posts and came across this one. I was also on this shift and remember it as though it was only yesterday such as the memory it has imprinted on my brain. My father was one of the Overmen on this shift too. I will never forget the speed at which one of the lads passed me on the belt and, like everyone else walking down the drift, thought it could of only ended the worst way. Thankfully there was no fatalities. I can remember helping lift one of the stretchers. We all put in a very difficult shift that night.
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I was on the 03.45 shift that day and came in to the aftermath, the drift hauler had still not been tested at this stage due to the ongoing work on the drift and awaiting a full report on proceedings from the Under manager and HMI. The outbye bunker and 58 bunker were full as the drift belt couldn't be started. The hauler was finally tested to bring the fore shift out. Special dispensation was given to bring in additional fitters to do the work as the pumps were off in the SW Winnings and it was flooding with an MC3 loader at risk of being lost. The drift belt was finally started but the outbye bunker jammed due to being overloaded and the fluid coupling failed on the motor drive, it took 8hrs to empty and repair - pit was idle including the Shilbottle workings - busy night!
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