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

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.

Yeah that's right a few did go down the belt, I was one of the many that decided to walk down the drift which was something of the norm in fore shift as the both the belt and drift man riding set were unavailable. It was as the paper at the time described a horror show. I have tried to recall the dates but have been unable to date ,will keep looking anyway

Found this when looking for belt accident,
 

Fatality list for whittle
 

We think it was probably 1983.

I would agree with Janwhin, 1983, Norman Fuller and Norman Goward were two of those injured?

As well as Norman there was Ken Goward.

it was Ken I was thinking of Janet

Yeah the three men injured at the incident Norman "Titch" Fuller , Ken Goward and Gary Batson. Others went down the belt but managed to get off before they lost control.

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.

I thought I might get that one right, Ken's my nephew :)

Sorry Janet, will get my facts right next time ;)
Wasn't 'Titch' from the Gowards too?

Ken's uncle by marriage apparently :)

Hi john, I was hand filling @ the time of the incident and was walking down the drift and was one of the men on the scene after the men had collided with each other. Amazing no was killed , although all had bad injuries especially titch who was working at the head end of one of the long wall coal faces and he and Gary went down the belt in tandem. I was at school with Ken and don't think he was related to Titch unless later through marriage. My father was from the drift and after he married my mother moved to Chibburn Avenue and later to Woodside Crescent as our family grew. He worked at Broomhill as a boy before working at Ellington Colliery. I still have family and friends in the Broomhill & Red Row area but live away from the area myself. I am busy writing a few things down from my past and the drift belt incident is something which has come up during my writings, but the year & date still elude me. Will get there in the end. Davey

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.

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.

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!