OK, so I found a bit of paper that I'd scribbled on from the last time that I was researching my family history. On it I've written that Sam was down as a coal hewer. This ties in with his place of birth on census records - a village whose livelihood centred around the pits.
I started to look at old records for that particular area, typed in the year and found a site that listed the recorded accidents from around that time, thinking maybe there would be a link to Sam and a possible reason for his leaving the place of his birth.
What an eye opener that was!
The list of accidents over a relatively short period of time, and the list of fatalities, was so long...
In some cases there were members of the same family killed or severely injured in the same accident.
One recorded incident tells of an explosion that killed 45 men.
Most distressing is the report that one of the search party, who entered the pit immediately after the explosion, was the father of four of the miners involved. Reports in the local newspaper tell of the courage of the father in undertaking this task. He entered the mine while there was still 'foul air and flaming blasts' along with the rest of the search party. His brother and eldest son appear to have been dead when the rescuers found them, but three of his other sons were found alive. George, badly burnt, Robert, severely burnt and William severely scorched, however, their names appear on the list of those killed, so their injuries must have been too bad for them to survive.
I know these men have nothing to do with my ancestors. I know only their names and what I have read about their injuries and the circumstances of their deaths. But I can't help feeling sorrow for their tragic passing. I can't help thinking of their mother and the grief she must have felt...I keep thinking of the courage of their father who lost sons and a brother that day...and who then went back to working in that same pit.
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