Last week on a return trip to Manchester, I put a request into the driver to break the journey up with a stop in the Newcastle-Under-Lyme area. This wasn't a random request, rather an opportunity to track down some more of my North Staffordshire family history.
Prior to a visit to Middleport Pottery, we located a couple of memorials that include the names of a few of my relatives. This is the story of one of them.
Unlike myself, our daughter Mo, does have an appreciation of pottery and ceramics. Her own made pieces featured in her final year work of her Fine Arts degree earlier this year. Knowing that my maternal family tree from the turn of the nineteenth century onwards is firmly rooted in the Potteries, it was I think an assumption of hers that her relatives all worked at various tasks in the potbanks. That to an extent is true, but it was something of a revelation to her that other, and numerous, relatives were employed underground.
I was delighted then, not to mention rather proud, to be able to show her a memorial on which my Great Uncle, her Great Great Uncle, is commemorated.
Silverdale is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire. The village has a very long mining heritage dating back to the 14th century when iron ore was brought to the surface. The commercial mining of coal commenced in 1830 and extraction continued until the mine closed on Christmas Eve 1998.
Coal mining as a profession has always been fraught with danger and in the recorded history of the mine many lost their lives. The Silverdale Mining Memorial, a statue of bronze and steel by artists Stephen Whyte and Michael Talbot commemorates 140 named and one unnamed miner and was raised 'In Tribute To Those Killed In The Silverdale Mines And To All Silverdale Miners Who Lost Their Lives Through Getting The Coal.'
As mentioned, one of those unfortunate miners was my Great Uncle, Arthur Heath, killed in a roof collapse at the Kents Lane Pit on 6th December 1921. He was 16 years of age.
About 70 years later, when writing a few recollections of his everyday life in the North Staffordshire of the 1920's my Grandfather and Arthur's younger brother, Jim Heath, said this of Arthur.
'We have had our bad times as well. Arthur, my eldest brother, was a miner at Kent’s Lane. Silverdale. He was a good goalkeeper, he had a trial for Port Vale on Wednesday and was supposed to play his first game the following Saturday, but he was killed on Friday night in a fall at the pit. Bang went my sixpence a week pocket money for keeping his football boots clean.'
After 70 years, the dates are confused but the sense of loss is there, along with an unwritten acceptance that such tragedies were a part and parcel of working life in mining communities.
The inquest into Arthur's death was reported in the 12th December 1921 edition of the Staffordshire Sentinel. On the same day he was buried in Knutton Cemetery.
Mr. H. W. Adams (Coroner) held an inquest at the New Inn, Knutton on Friday afternoon, on the body of Arthur Heath (16) a taker-off, of 6, Arthur Street, Knutton, who was killed by a fall of roof at Kent’s Lane Colliery, Silverdale, belonging to the Shelton Iron , Steel and Coal Company, Ltd, on Tuesday.
There were present at the enquiry Mr. P.S. Lea ((H.M. Inspector of Mines), Mr. W. H. Abberley (representing the Shelton Company), Mr. R.H. Moon, from the office of Messrs Hollinshead and Moody (on behalf of the relatives of the deceased), Mr. J. W. Sumnall (Secretary of the North Staffordshire Shotlighters’ and Firemen’s Association) and Mr. J. Cocks (agent to the Shelton Company).
[Illegible] by Robert Heath, an iron worker, who stated that the deceased, his son, had worked at the Kent’s Lane Pit 18 months.
Mr. W. Malbon, manager at the Silverdale Collieries, produced a plan showing the scene of the accident, which happened in the South East District (No. [illegible] jig). Witness stated that he visited the place at 9.15 pm – about an hour after the accident. A fall had taken place at the bottom of the jig in the Great Row Seam reeling out a post and two stretchers. The fall would be approximately a ton, one lump weighing approximately 10 cwt. It had come from a slit which could not have been seen before the accident. The place had been sufficiently timbered. A goth1 might have caused the accident; the district suffered occasionally from goths.
Arthur Davies, a taker-off, of 44, Goose Street, Newcastle, said he was working along with the deceased at the time of the accident. Witness was taking his tub out first, the deceased following with his load. Witness got through the brattice2, when he heard some stuff coming down. On going back he found that the deceased was under the fall. Witness picked up the deceased’s lamp, which was extinguished, and ran for assistance. Witness had heard a goth about a quarter of an hour prior to the accident.
Joshua Jones, colliery foreman, of 31, Newcastle Street, Silverdale spoke to making an examination of the place about an hour and a half before the accident. He thought it was perfectly safe, and would have been satisfied to work there himself.
P.S.C.A. Clarke of Silverdale, described the nature of the injuries. There was an extensive wound under the right armpit, bruises on the neck and face and the ribs were crushed.
The Coroner registered a verdict of “Accidental death”.
Mr. Cocks, on behalf of the owners of the colliery, and the Coroner expressed sympathy with the relatives of the deceased.
A couple of mining terms in the report require some explanation for the layman.
1 goth: A sudden outburst of coal at the working face accompanied by a loud report. As a rule the coal and stone are projected from the face in a very shattered, and often powdered, condition. The outburst is due to the settlement of the roof producing a state of strain in the coal or its roof, or floor, eventuating in the sudden rupture, which is termed ‘goth’.
2 Brattice: a division or partition in a shaft, heading or other underground working place to direct air to a specific point, often to dilute flammable or noxious gases. It could also be used to divide the place or a shaft into two parts, one for the ingress of fresh air and the other for the egress of the used air. A brattice could be constructed of wood, brick or stonework, or heavy-duty tightly woven (sometimes tarred) cloth nailed to a timber frame or timber boarding.'
So there you have it Mo, whilst some of the family made their living painting plates, glazing pots and loading and unloading kilns (there may even have been a saggar makers bottom knocker amongst them!) others toiled at the coal seams deep underground and some of them like Arthur died doing it.
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