Memories 11


If you go away past Hartley fields where we used to hang out you will come to Hartley Village, one of the saddest things I can relate to you happened there in 1862 on Thursday the 16th of January at Hester Pit the beam weighing over 40 tons snapped in two and one half of it went down the shaft carrying all before it including the cage which was full of men who were coming up after the fore shift.
Hester Pit like a lot of pits in the area had only one shaft whereas now, including the mines I've worked in, have two shafts so in the case of a disaster there is always a second means of escape, sadly in the case of the Hester mine it cost the lives of 204 men and boys.Since the Hester tragedy by law all mines required two shafts as a means of escape but also they are used to ventilate the mine by forcing fresh air into one shaft it is then directed round the mine workings by means of stoppers and airdoors and eventually exiting from the upcast shaft.
In the cage that day were eight men, when the cage was struck four of the men fell to their death and the other four hung on to the cage, when the broken beam eventually jammed across the shaft between the Yard Seam and the High Main seam it was immediately buried under 30 yards of debris rocks and pipework. For almost a week the brave rescuers toiled to get down to the men but to no avail and eventually all hope faded of finding miners alive and it turned into a recovery operation. To this day in Earsdon churchyard stands a monument to the 204 men and boys who died that week and scattered round the monument is a number of the actual graves of the victims





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