Durham Mining Museum - Newspaper Articles (original) (raw)

24th June 1885, Page: 2, Column: 6

The Accident At The Margaret Pit

Inquest This Day

The inquiry into the circumstances attending the accident at the Margaret, or "Peggy," Pit, by which 13 lives were lost, on June 3rd, was resumed before Mr. Maynard, coroner, at the Jolly Potters Inn, Newbottle, this morning. The names of the deceased men and boys areGeorge Jarvis, Newbottle ; Joseph Robson, senior, and Jacob Robson, junior, New Herrington ;James Wilson Gray, New Herrington;John House, Success Row; Joseph Laidlaw, Success Row ; Robert John Bailes, Sunniside ;George Lowrey, Sunniside; John Callighan, Sunniside ; W. Davison, Shiney Row; Joseph Carr, Shiney Row ; Thomas Jackson Saunders, Pensher Staiths ; and Rennison Carter, deputy overman, Sunniside. — Mr. A. Young, barrister-at-law, of Lincoln's Inn, appeared for the Home Office ; Mr. Cooper, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, represented the owner of the colliery, Earl Durham. There were also present — Mr. Bell, Government Inspector of Mines for the County of Durham; and Mr. Atkinson, Deputy Government Inspector of Mines ; and Mr. Atherley Jones, barrister-at-law (instructed by Mr. Henry Forrest, of Durham), watched the proceedings in behalf of the Miners' Association ; Mr. W. Lishman, chief viewer of the Newbottle Collieries ; Mr. Robson, of Lumley Thicks; Mr. W. Foggin, viewer of Old Biddick Colliery ; Mr. W. H. Patterson, financial secretary to the Durham Miners' Association; Mr. Benjamin Pickard, secretary to the Yorkshire Miners' Association ; Mr. White, Northumberland Miners'; Mr. Stobart (one of Lord Durham's agents); &c.

The Coroner said he did not think the inquiry would take up any great length of time, because it was an agreed fact that these men's deaths all arose from holing into certain old workings. It would be for the jury to say whether that holing into the old workings occurred through pure misadventure, through want of judgment, or through gross negligence. It would not therefore be necessary to go over the whole of the pit, but to confine themselves to that particular point, and he did not think the time of the jury would be unnecessarily occupied so far as the inquiry was concerned.

The first witness called was Mr. Wm. Lishman, who said he was chief viewer at the colliery. Witness produced a working plan of the Newbottle Collieries, including the Margaret Pit, where the accident occurred. The seam in which the accident happened was the Maudlin Seam. To the best of witness' knowledge the workings had been correctly laid down as they had been placed on the plan from time to time. The Elizabeth Pit was half filled up. Witness had been there 23 years, and the filling up had taken place before his time. The distance from the point of holing to the old workings as shown on the working plan produced was 376 yards.