It is about the 70th anniversary of the bad accident there in November 1939. I have a news item I copied at the time. I attended a service in November at the church in Stainforth. It was a very moving service, but a lovely one. All three schools took part, and it was a village event.
I'll post the new paper cutting, and then I will finish off.
Parade marks 70th anniversary of pit disaster
Published Date: 15 December 2009
CHURCH leaders and former miners from across the county came together for a Miners' Memorial Service to mark the 70th anniversary of the cage crash at Hatfield Main Colliery.
Almost 70 boys and men suffered serious injuries on December 12 1939 following an overwind in Number Two Shaft. One, Daniel Horrigan of Arundel Street, Stainforth, died.
St Mary's Church at Stainforth organised and hosted the Miners' Memorial Parade and Service with all the churches together in Stainforth. It was led by the Anglican Bishop of Doncaster, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hallam and the Methodist Chair of Sheffield District, with Hatfield Powerfuel colliery brass band and representatives of the NUM carrying the old NUM banner.
The service included a performance of a new drama by Hatfield Visual Art College students charting the crash. There were also performances by Hatfield Powerfuel Colliery brass band and Kirton Lane and Long Toft primary school choirs while Holy Family Primary School pupils led the prayers.
There was a two minutes silence at 1.45pm, the time of the cage crash, when the church bells were rung.
Bishop Cyril Ashton said: "It is important that the community remembers and this service gave everyone the opportunity to come together at this time of the year."
The work-in-progress of a clay model for a large new Miners' Memorial Sculpture to be permanently placed in St Mary's was also on display.
The scupture is a very well thought provoking piece of work. Byron is a friend of mine, and puts a lot of feeling into this type of work. When it is finished, it will be placed at the front of St Mary's Church.
I bought a book at the church, called Dads Do Cry, written by Robert Renton, a Stainforth man. He had five brothers one of them was his twin brother. It is a well researched book. He visited the men who were still alive when he was working on the book. Only one is alive now, and he was in the parade, and at the service. Robert also had newspaper cuttings and lots of help from different sources.I don't know how many members are interested, but the book is on sale at Stainforth library, and it costs £8.50. I could send one of the books to anyone who would like one, if they will send me a private message, and I could take it from there. I posted one before Christmas and the postage was 90p first class.
G'day from Tanunda,
ReplyDeleteI knew about the newspaper article from my sister who lives in Stainforth and it brought back some very vivid memories for me of the life afterwards for a number of the victims known by my Dad (also a miner) and who I used to see hobble around Dunscroft and Stainforth on crutches. I have heard stories of the tragic accident which happened in 1939 (just a matter of days before Xmas) first hand. Although I wasn't around at the time of the accident, (I was born in 1942) I lived next door to Frank Pedley who was a victim of that accident losing one of his legs (he nearly had both amputated!). His daughter Betty is a close friend of ours here in OZ and she has told many tales of their life after the accident - very hard indeed. Betty bought me the book "Dads do Cry" by Robert Renton and that guy is so close to the mark with his story.
It obviously must have changed their lives big time, but the Pedley's had the resolve and strength to get on with life. I recall that Frank was a happy soul and could be seen at the front of the house most fine days calling out G'day to his ex mining mates. He used to whistle tunes a lot out there and always made a fuss of me whenever I passed him on the way to/from school and shops.
However, when I was a lad of about five, I was seen mimicking him when I accompanied him down the garden to feed his chooks and collect the eggs. I was following him and I limped with a stiff leg! Frank knew very well what I was doing and laughed it off in his way. That didn't prevent me getting a hiding when I went indoors though!
Does anyone else remember this tragic occasion?
Tootle Pip for Now
Ron
Eileen,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for this. I remember the accident but I think there was only one person I knew in it.I will be sending you an email to ask you to get a copy of the book for me.I am sorry to hear that only one of the victims is still alive. Several of them were about my age and had just started working at Hatfield Main.
I also remember the accident (it happened the day after my 8th birthday). I heard about it from the "bell ringer" in the street and ran home to assure myself that my father was not involved. It turned out that he was in bed. He was on the night shift, "packing & drawing off", leaving after the nine o'clock news and returning about 7.30 am.
ReplyDeleteIn the following weeks there seemed to be a plethora of walking wounded in Broadway - amputees and men with their legs in plaster wending their way up to the Greenfield WMC. The fact that only one man was killed in this accident hides the significance of the event. In the preceding year 4 men had been killed in "accidents" in the same pit, 116 in Yorkshire pits and the national figure at that time was about 1000 per year. It puts our losses in Irak & Afghanistan into perspective.
And of course, the fishing industry had a similar record. Somehow I have failed to communicate to my own children and grandchildren the debt we owe to those men.
I'm glad you've read the book RonisOK. I think it's very informative, and as miners' children, we were used to some of the vocabulary at the time, and we are reminded of by reading the book.
ReplyDeleteRonmalta, I have received your email thank you. I will respond to you soon. I thought you might want one, and as you must have been around the age of the youngest victims, you must have thought, "There but for the grace of God, go I" if not then, later on.
Now I am being serious for once. Says he wearing his hard hat, safety specs with varifocal lens (no expense spared), respirator round the neck, steel toed shoes, company sox, company pants, company trousers, company shirt, company track suit top. And that was 15 years ago!! No way am I trying to detract from the pain and suffering felt by those families after such a tragedy, but it has to be kept in context. We live and always have lived in a time of change. The mining industry in S. Yorks was quite young compared to down here. And what a history. Women underground on their hands and knees harnessed to tubs of coal. Kids of 10 opening and closing canvas screens to aid ventilation. Verified instances of same kids being sent home from work with a severed limb wrapped up in a towel. Fast forward to the 40's. Molly Mellor and me stacking corn all day during school hols. She would go home knackered, and my only thought was " I would think so, she's not as strong as me." Along comes the war which was a major bending point - the workers came back demanding a better deal. Maybe there were more productive routes than the strike weapon, but it did the trick. There had to be a reaction, and Maggie appeared and restored a bit of balance. Then both these actions of "My dad's bigger than yours" led to the biggest pieces of Legislation ever. The Industrial Relations Act and the Health and Safety at Work etc Act. Finally Management and Workforce stood shoulder to shoulder and faced problems together. To have a tidy wage and conditions, and to retire relatively unscratched.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever thought back to your religous background. How on a Sunday you had a morning service and then an evening service. But if you were just a kid you went to Sunday "School". Odd name to give to a mini service for kids. It dates back to the days when the working class kids were not deemed worthy of formal education. So the Church jumped in and gave them an hour per week for free for a year or two. And a hundred and more years later "School" still lives on. Bit different from our T.G.S. Limo.
Allan
I have no general recollection of the disaster.I do remember the Doctor coming to see me, at home that evening, because I was ill with Diphtheria. He was all covered in black coal dust, he said it was because he had been to a disaster at Hatfield Main. It must have impressed me !! I was almost 5 years old at the time!
ReplyDeleteJune
Allen is right. But outside our little western world, so affluent (??) and egalitarian(??) things are often no better than 200 years ago,and there could be a turnaround,in the wrong direction,even here.
ReplyDeleteThere are other Maggies waiting in the wings.
Where I worked,25 years ago,the Top Dog was paid about 10 times as much as the lowest employee (of course it wasnt a profit making place). Today the CEO of a bank makes not ten times but between 500 and a thousand times as much. Irrelevant? or a herold of a new age of greed and exploitation?
Ron - I would never dream of saying we have any where near a perfect society in the U.K. We had a bit of awareness of these fat cats and benefit scroungers, but the recession highlights these anomalies, when you want to work, are actively looking for work, but there just ain't any work out there any longer. But what I was trying to say was Industrial society is on the move. To pick a stat out of the past (however horrible it was for participants and friends and relations) has to be compared with before and after. Things were definitely worse before that time, and I would say got better, year on year, after that. But I still maintain it took W.W.2 and the ensuing unrest, followed by mindblowing legislation, to get where we are today. And I was in no cushy govt employment. I was in private industry. We had to produce cheaper and better and be more innovative than the competition. And having the labour with you instead of wildcatting etc was a real boon. Just a little story comes to mind, just in case you think everything was the fault of the bosses. My stepfather came back from Thorne Pit with a nasty cut on his hand, untreated. So my mother says, "Couldn't they have cleaned it up and put a sticky on?" "No bloody hopes. They put out bandages and plasters on a Monday and by Tuesday they have all been pinched and on their way home."
ReplyDeleteAllan
June, There were three doctors in attendance at the disaster. Dr Waters and Dr Lawson went down into what was the unknown for them, to help the injured, and Dr Anderson stayed in the ambulance room treating the casualties as they were brought out. So there were three who could have treated you. The book tells you what heroes the doctors were on that day, as well as different miners.
ReplyDeleteAllan,
ReplyDeleteWhat a sneaky little story - certainly demonstrates all your prejudices. The other explanation is that there were more accidents than management provided for.
But if you are going to pontificate about the past you'd better get your facts right. Miners didn't wait until 1945 to demand a better deal. They demanded a better deal for centuries, but had to wait for nationalisation to get a sympathetic hearing. The accident rate dropped significantly after 1947.
The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) did not happen after Maggie "restored the balance". It was enacted during Wilson's second administration. Barbara Castle introduced an Act in 1970 which ran out of time because of the 1970 election. Heath followed and produced nothing for 4 years. Progress had to wait until the Labour administration returned in 1974. Michael Foot was Sec of State for employment and got this massive piece of legislation through in record time (I was on secondment to the Dept of Employment in Whitehall at the time). Maggie Thatcher became Prime Minister 5 years later.
Thatcher certainly introduced the Industrial Relations legislation to weaken the bargaining position of the workers, whose only weapon is withdrawal of labour. But as far as the miners were concerned it was all irrelevant because she also closed down the mining industry and made no proper provision for alternative employment in the coal fields. Result - 20 years of economic stagnation in South Yorkshire, loss of morale in parents, loss of motivation in youngsters, TGS branded a "failing" comprehensive by OFSTED, Moorends dubbed "the drugs capital of the North" in the gutter press. The miners didn't stand shoulder to shoulder with management. They stood shoulder to shoulder with each other in the Job Centres, craving employment.
If you choose to turn a thread like this into a political diatribe, please get your facts right.
Keith - I have upset you. And there could be others who feel the same way too. I refuse to go into any dialogue, but I apologise unreservedly to you and any others who found my comments out of order.
ReplyDeleteAllan
Pax - re your prejudices, thanks for the opportunity to demonstrate mine.
ReplyDeleteNow off to catch a bit of sun in Tenerife. See you in two weeks.
K
Can we now keep this thread as I intended. I would be interested if anyone else would like to add anything about the accident. I know we have a member who is actually related to the author and who's grandfather was down the pit at the time, but I think it is up to him whether he wants to say anything in here.
ReplyDeleteThere is an evocative site called the Stainforth voice archive which represents "Lifetimes and Memories of Stainforth. Its web address is http://www.stainforth-va.co.uk/index.htm and It represents personal memories of Stainforth from the 1920's onwards. It is a useful addition to the book "Dads do Cry"
ReplyDeleteKia Ora Eileen...please save a book for me ...willbe home from NZ in two weeks and will contact you then. You do a great job keeping us all in touch with our roots...Thanks. Pat
ReplyDeleteI'll get one for you Pat. Ron's is at the Moorends library waiting for me to pick up. I'll ask for another one to be sent. As it is a private sale, I pay for it before I order it, but your name is good for me.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are still enjoying your time in New Zealand. We've had some more snow in Moorends, and it's blooming cold.
Thanks Rod. I have seen it before, and I hope others will enjoy reading about their roots. I know I do.