Mineral mining: The 1895 Snailbeach Mining Disaster
The weather in the first quarter of the year 1895 was of exceptional severity. Snow, sleet, gales and frost, the like of which had rarely been experienced before in the district, prevailed week after week. The snow drifted into huge drifts wherever there was shelter or support for it. Severe frost hardened it, while more snow fell from time to time.
![General view Snailbeach Mine [Opens in new window: image size 40kb]](../../images/ind_c04b.jpg)
Snailbeach Mine c.1910
Larger image, in a new window [40kb]
[Shropshire Archive reference: Lock Collection 00018242]
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It was in such weather conditions as these that the men from a very wide area (some travelling several miles) made their way through the darkness to the Snailbeach Lead Mine in time for the 6 a.m. shift on the morning of March 6th 1895. On arriving at their cabin they stripped out of their day clothes, as usual, and donned those worn under- ground. These consisted of home-made white flannel shirts, moleskin or ducking trousers, ordinary jackets in the pockets of which they carried their lunch and tin bottle of tea. On their heads they wore cotton skull caps, which relieved the pressure of the hard hats which they wore for protection against falling rock. These hats were ordinary bowlers made hard with a coating or two of resin. On the front of the hat was stuck a lump of clay, which held a tallow candle. This was the only light provided to illumine the dark chasms of a mine which eventually reached to a depth of 552 yards.
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The cages which lowered the men up and down the pit were operated on a double band, so that as one went down the other came up. These were attached to the side of the pit with slippers which ran down a guide rail. The cage was suspended by a steel rope attached to the top and operated from the engine house. In it was room for seven men.
On this fateful morning a number of men had already descended the Old Shaft and were waiting at the bottom assembled in a nearby lodge for their companions to join them before spreading out to their various places of work. Seven more men entered the cage to make their way down the shaft when the rope broke and the cage crashed to the bottom of the 252 yard shaft.
The cage plunges down
As the cage crashed down, the men who were already waiting in the lodge rushed to the bottom of the shaft, where a ghastly spectacle met their eyes. A commentator at the time wrote ' ... Strong men paled and none who saw the mutilated bodies crave for such a sight again. ...' The 7ft. 6in. high steel cage was reduced in height by the impact to 18ins. Strange to relate, a watch belonging to one of the men was still going when removed by the rescue party.
News soon spread far and wide and people rushed to the pit head. For a time there was much speculation and uncertainty as to whom the seven men were who chanced to be in this particular cage on its tragic journey. In all such disasters it always seems to happen that, by a slight mischance, someone escapes at the expense of another. It was so in this case. George Lewis's son, Will, was one to enter this cage, but on his father remarking that they had forgotten their drills (which had been brought up the previous day to the blacksmith's shop for sharpening) the young man ran back to the cabin to get them. When he stepped out Arthur Wardman took his place. The signal was given and the cage moved downwards to its destruction. Will Lewis came out of the cabin just in time to see the broken end of the steel rope flying overhead back to the engine house, where George Williams, Sen., (the engine driver) had a narrow escape from its recoil.
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![Snailbeach Mine headframe [Opens in new window: image size 75kb]](../../images/ind_c03b.jpg)
Old Shaft Headframe at Snailbeach Mine c. 1900
Larger image, in a new window [75kb]
[Shropshire Archive reference: Lock Collection 00018243]
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Seven men die
The men who had gone down the mine before the accident made their way to the surface via the ladder road of the adjacent pumping shaft. The pitmen's cabin became a mortuary.
The victims were:
- Andrew Dorricott (50), Snailbeach;
- Joseph Evans (45), Perkins Beach;
- George Lewis (46), Pennerley;
- Richard Oakley (60), Minsterley;
- Thomas Jones (32), Stiperstones;
- John Purslow (52), Wagbeach;
- Arthur Wardman (27), Gorsty Bank.
The inquest was held on the day after the accident and the verdict stated that 'These seven men lost their lives in the Snailbeach Lead Mine through the breaking of a defective rope.'
From The Shropshire Magazine April 1955 written by Margaret Corfield
Reproduced by kind permission of Shropshire Newspapers
Note: There was a further death: Anne Blower, another miner's wife was informed incorrectly that John, her husband, was in the cage which crashed. She collapsed on hearing the news and died the following day.
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![General view Snailbeach Mine [Opens in new window: image size 40kb]](../../images/ind_c04a.jpg)
![Snailbeach Mine headframe [Opens in new window: image size 75kb]](../../images/ind_c03a.jpg)