Amble and District
     Local History

 

Menu

The Amble and District Mining Memorial

Acklington Broomhill Hauxley Longframlington
Newburgh Newton Radcliffe Shilbottle
Togston Whittle Other Collieries  

 

ACKLINGTON COLLIERY     
   
PURVIS Robert Young 1849
RUTHERFORD Daniel 1900
   

 

Robert Young Purvis

Died 24 December 1849

Aged 12 years, of Acklington.
 Buried St Lawrence, Warkworth, 26 December.
 
   At the 1841 census, Robert is one of three children, living at Acklington with their parents, Robert, a coal miner, and Eleanor.
 
Newcastle Journal, 29 December 1849
    “An inquest was held at Acklington, on Tuesday before Thomas Adams Russell Esq. coroner, on the body of Robert Purvis, a lad of thirteen years of age, who worked in Acklington Colliery, and, on the morning of the preceding day, had, with five other persons, gone to their work between four and five o’clock. One of the others, who was about seventy yards from the shaft, left the place where he was working for the purpose of sending the coals to bank, and found the deceased lying at the bottom of the shaft, quite dead. There was foul air in the pit, and he had died of suffocation; the other persons at work with him got out without any injury. Verdict-“Accidental Death.””
 

 

Daniel Rutherford

 Died 7 July 1900

Horsekeeper, aged 72 years, of Amble Hope House.
 Buried East Cemetery, Amble, 10 July. (Grave Plot Y77)

   At the 1891 census, Daniel, born in Amble, is a farm labourer, living with his family at Longhirst.

Morpeth Herald, 14 July 1900
   “Daniel Rutherford, a horsekeeper, was killed at Acklington Colliery on Saturday morning. He got into a cage to descend into the pit as far as the Princess Seam, the cage stopping there to allow him to get out. He must have fallen from the landing or from the cage, for his body was found in the sump at the bottom of the shaft. He was 71 years of age.
   On Monday, Mr Chas. Percy, coroner for North Northumberland, held an inquest on the body of Daniel Rutherford, who was killed on Saturday, under the following circumstances.
   John Rutherford deposed: I live at North Broomhill, and am a fireman, and am the son of the deceased, who was a horsekeeper at Acklington Colliery, and aged 72 years.
   William Smith Anderson deposed: I am a winding engineman at Acklington Colliery. On the 7th inst., about 11 a.m., I was on duty at the Colliery. I sent the deceased down about that time. He had been down before that. He was to go to the Princess Seam on that occasion. When he went down he seemed in his usual. Everything seemed perfectly safe. He took two trusses of hay with him. He was standing on the floor of the cage when I last saw him, holding on by the bar. After about two minutes I got the signal from the Princess seam to lower gently. I did not lower, the signal being from the wrong seam. I at last got the signal from the Princess seam to lower, and did so. I knew nothing of the accident at the time.
   James Davidson, stoneman at the colliery, deposed: I was in the Princess seam. I did not see the deceased come down, but I heard Mr Cox shouting from the lower seam. I went to the shaft, and he shouted for me to lower the cage to the lower seam (or Duke Seam), which is about nine fathoms lower. The cage was then standing all right at the Princess seam. I caused it to be lowered to the Duke seam. I do not think there is room for deceased to have fallen between the walling of the shaft and the cage. I heard no cry. Deceased seemed to be all right when I last saw him.
   Thomas Cocks, onsetter at Acklington Colliery, deposed: About 11 a.m. I was close by the shaft, which has a sump at the bottom. I heard the cage coming down, and then I heard something strike twice in the shaft. Then I saw deceased fall into the sump. I sent the cage to bank for assistance, and deceased was got out of the water in three minutes. He was quite dead. I never knew deceased take any fits. He could have fallen from the cage before he got to the Princess seam landing, but not at the landing.
   The jury found that deceased was killed by accidentally falling from the cage while descending the shaft.”
 

 

 home