Warwickshire Coalfield (inc. pit accidents)

Hi, I'm looking for people who knew my grandfather, John ('Jack') Cahill. He moved to Keresley in the mid-1940s and worked at the mine. He lived in the Keresley-Coventry district until he died in 1993. My branch of the family moved to Sydney, so I never met my grandfather. So I'm wondering if any of his friends or work mates are still around who can tell me about him. I have a photo of Jack, which is attached below. Thanks and regards, JC (Sydney)

Hello & welcome to you JC. I hope that someone will respond to you request.

Hoping this link works, if you scroll down to Coventry ones and further down are more, click on their names of the men it states what accident they had. If not appropriate your welcome to delete. Just thought it part of our history and might help some one in tracing their ancestors.

I have missed your input for a few days and glad you are back with your 'knowledge base' of all kinds of stuff I was reading recently about a terrible disaster at Exhall in 1915 with the names of miners that died.

Hi all & Hi to you both It is very much part of our history, Morgana. More than that, it is part of my history too. My wife's uncle died following an underground rockfall at Newdigate Colliery, February 1963. He was the only fatality, one Sunday morning. He left behind a widow, a daughter & three sons.

An interesting list. I notice that women were working underground and men over 65. Not that I have anything against those two groups, I am a man well over 65 and my wife is a woman but underground is no place for either. Philip. I served my apprenticeship at Newdigate Colliery and I would guess that your wife's uncle had his accident at 5 South District. The roof was very unstable and there were a number of serious accidents there. I was injured in the South District by a roof fall and I have a number of blue scars to prove it. Doctors have forgotten about miners' blue scars and in my several visits to hospital I have to explain how I got them. Poem. I well remember those scars of blue that covered my granddad's hands. Hands that were gnarled and wrinkled, the hands of a working man. Most of us carry the scars from the work we had to do but only the miners hands are scared forever blue That and several other miners' poems are on the Net. Les

What a horrendous list of fatalities, even now with H&S there are still miners getting killed. I worked at Baddesley Colliery when I was younger and used to ride the belts regularly (Les will know what I mean) and I now realise what a stupid thing to do, as if the job wasn't dodgy enough. I hated it and soon packed it in after moving back to Coventry.

One of the occupations where those who have never been involved can only wonder at the bravery of those who slaved away hour after hour in such dreadful and dangerous conditions Hats off to them all

Hi Midland Red, Hi all, In the days before computers, for years, I used to receive at my office a government publication called the 'Monthly digest of statistics'. It quoted everything that could be quoted, from the number of washing machines sold to the number of cars built. The top three categories until the late eighties, for fatalities & serious injury, were mining, deep sea fishing & railways. Construction, farming & ship building were also near to the top. I fell off a scaffold plank once but was ok. My most serious injury though, was cutting my finger with the edge of brown paper. I have a lot to be thankful for.

NormK. I never went down Baddesley, the closest to there I got was Wood End and Birch Coppice where we went to learn "Pit sense". You must have gone to Wood End. Remember Static Joe? Mines rescue was also taught at Wood End, best skive off work ever. 1954, I went back to Wood End to assist replace the winding motor. It was the first colliery in the UK to have an electric motor to drive the winding drum. Never as good as steam though. MR. Although I was not a miner as such I did enjoy working underground. I was a plant fitter and worked underground repairing coal cutters, Sanderson shearers and the like. For the most part I enjoyed my years working in mining. Les

Good on yer!

Hi Les. I did 16 weeks training at some place in Nuneaton, apart from visiting different pits, I only went to Wood End once, and we got to it from underground but not sure where from, I remember it was so scary, it was so low we done the whole journey on our knees in complete darkness. I suppose it could have been Birch Coppice.

If of interest the terrible story of the 1915 accident at Exhall is told in a CD, 'Black Diamonds' that we sell at Bedworth Heritage Centre. The interactive CD looks at the history of mining in the town and is created in Power point. This image (sorry for quality) shows the scene at the top of the shaft during the rescue. Doctor Lionel Orton from Bedworth and Doctor Webster from Longford are to the left of the picture.

NormK. Birch Coppice joined with Wood End underground. I suppose you worked on "the tag" or the haulage at Baddesley. I believe it could get a little tedious at times but an important part of mining. Les

After reading the newspaper articles of the period about the Exhall 1915 disaster, that photograph was interesting, Heritage. There are loads of articles of accidents in the local papers that I observe and don't add to the forum because they could be too distressful for relatives. Singular accidents happened with falling rubble etc that don't get the coverage as much but all painful for the mining community.