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Old 24-09-2013, 10:36 PM
Grim_up_North Grim_up_North is offline
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Regarding the horse and the mine workings - from Bedlingtonshire Revisited, June 2005 - © Sixth Townships Community History Group

Those Were The Days

Horse Buried Alive

A butcher from Amble, Adam Goodfellow, travelling with his horse and cart along a track through the fields at High Coldrife Farm, near Broomhill, was shocked when the horse began to sink in the ground during a Friday evening in January 1931. Adam who was accompanied by a boy, Andrew Moffatt sprang into action to try and save the animal with help of a housekeeper, Maud Taylor, who had seen the incident. The cart was pulled clear, but unfortunately the horse, which was struggling violently, sank deeper. Frantic efforts continued to try and haul the horse out but these all failed. An attempt was made to get the animal from underneath. Three miners who were working in a seam 30 feet below the ground, saw the horse, and one of them Mr. W. Summers, walked round to get into a good position to free it. He himself was cut off by a fall of stone and earth, and had to be hauled out to the surface by means of ropes and ladders. The other two miners who made the attempt were, Mr. J. T. Nesbit and Mr. W. Wade. The workers on the surface were unable to make headway owing to the continual crumbling of earth which kept falling back and making their work dangerous. The horse slipped deeper and deeper into the main workings and earth and coal continued to fall onto the animal until it totally disappeared from sight. Although there was extreme danger, the miners kept up their efforts to save the horse’s life until the early hours of Saturday morning. About 3. 00 am in the morning they came to the conclusion that the horse was dead, but kept toiling on until they reached the animal’s carcase. The fall where the tragedy took place, was about one mile from Broomhill Colliery and riddled with previous pitfalls.
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