1994 - Page 25

Ollerton Was Closed 1994, After 69 Years

- Continued -

For the majority of accidents, depending upon the severity, a visit would be made by one of HM Inspectors to the colliery to visit the scene and take notes. A Workmen’s Inspector would visit also along with a member of the Safety team. One or more Surveyors would also visit the scene to take measurements to draw up a plan. As you can see from the fatal and serious accidents and dangerous incidents etc around 300 plans were made for distribution. Some were very complicated to draw and took many hours of skilful work.

I measured up the scenes of 5 fatalities out of 7, also 52 reportable accidents out of 60 and 31 incidents out of 41 from Feb 1971 to Sep 1986 and constructed the plans. Quite a number as one can see. The other accidents and incidents were measured by my Deputy or Assistants at the time and the plans constructed by them. Various numbers of prints depending upon the severity of the accident were printed by the Lady tracer, trimmed and folded and distributed to the personnel involved such as HMI, Safety Engineer at HQ, Union, maybe a Solicitor and Claims Inspector and in the case of the deaths several copies for the Coroner’s Court that I attended with the Manager at different venues depending upon where they resided or died or taken to hospital etc and included, Mansfield Police station four times, 16 Nov 1973, 20 Sep 1974, 23 Dec 1976 and 10 Oct 1980, Sheffield Court, 28 Feb 1975, Nottingham Court and Worksop Court 28 Feb 1977.

I also attended Nottingham Shire Hall on 2 Mar 1977 where a court case between Ken Cross (Accident 17 Nov 1972) Versus NCB.

There was a borer killed at the Ollerton exploratory borehole site in 1919 when he was run over by a tub of flushing mud.

A dangerous occurrence happened on 8th Mar 1991 when the Main mine fan and booster fan stopped, 18s Airway Booster and 34s Booster. This incident as the others, needed to be reported to the HM Inspector. Black's device failure on the Markham steam winding engine on coaling shaft, in 1960, no injury, but the same thing would happen at Markham Colliery North Derbyshire, some 13 years later, with loss of life (see).

Many other serious incidents were reported in the past:

• Kinged at No1 shaft (overwind) 24th August 1927
• Chairs caught in shaft 30th November 1928
• Pipes dislodged in No1 shaft 6th Feb 1929
• Shaft frozen 14th 19th Feb 1929
• Pony killed 22nd Sep 1930
• No1 shaft accident 6th Nov 1930
• Broken haulage rope No2 pit 17th July 1931
• Underground fire on 3s face caused by coal cutter cable caught under the web and ignited gummings 1933
• Another fire on a face caused by friction 1936
• On the surface 2 locomotives crashed in fog on 8th Nov 1938, causing the pit to be laid off for the day
• Stan Burgess was fined 10 shillings (50p) plus 22s 6d (£1.12 p) plus costs at Mansfield Court on 24th Jan 1929 for riding in a tub on 1st Feb 1939
• A fire in a Winding engine house Aug 1939 had to be put out by the local brigade, as the Company’s fire engine from Butterley was late in coming, because the men thought it was just a practice, as it had been at Kirkby colliery previously
• First underground heating at 27s in 1951
• Heating at 26s 1953
• Heating at 24s and 32s April 1958
• Heating at 24s and at 51s in 1959
• Recurrence of heating at 51s and one in the pit bottom in 1960
• Overwind April 1964
• Slurry pond bank burst Jan 1965
• Mine car trapped in spears at No1 pit bottom June 1965
• A further shaft incident with a mine car July 1965
• Fire at 650s A2 conveyor Sep 1965
• Lorry and wagons collide on surface Sep 1965
• Underground heatings at 41s and 104s
• A further slurry pond burst on the pit tip
• Further heatings in Oct 1966
• Heatings at 103s, 56s and 106s and Shotfiring incident, Aug 1967
• Further heatings at 41s and 56s, 1968
• 5 ton steam crane fell over on the surface Jan 1968 (Freddie Parr)
• Shotfiring incidents at 107s return end Feb, 111s supply gate stable Apr, 42s supply gate stable July, 1968
• 15 ton Mobile crane fell over at run of mine stockpile on surface Dec 1968
• Firedamp ignition 42s loader gate stable, bi-di shearer, Jan 1969
• Fire at 107s loader gate 60hp Sutcliffe Tigress gearhead
• Electrical incident 650s sub-station Apr 1970
• Heating at 111s, May 1970
• Fire at 57s loader gate tandem, Oct 1971
• Electrical incident 2s loader gate, Oct 1971
• RB 22 Excavator crane fell over at slurry pond on surface, Apr 1972
• Heating 24s ‘A’ conveyor, Dec 1972
• In Jan 1973, 116s right hand airway end ran into 114s left hand goaf, which should have been at least 10 yards (9m) away and was then found to have been wrongly plotted on the working plan in 1970, and a large amount of methane gas escaped into the air stream (4% in the general body on my oil lamp on that day as I was carrying out a statutory survey) causing the panel to stop coaling, the gate was turned 10 degrees and chocks were taken off and the face shortened down, and extra methane boreholes drilled to capture the gas and relieve the dangerous situation
• Runaway tubs at 100s left hand 1in 4 drift, June 1973
• Bulge in No1 shaft, Sep 1973
• Fire at A2 conveyor, belt rubbing on wooden leg, Oct 1973
• Heating at 20s, Jan 1974
• Parkgate Intake junction collapsed 25ft high (7.5m) and flattened Top Hard seam South side conveyor and stopped coaling for several days
• Heating 58s face line July 1975 in fact we saw an open fire, resulted in the district being stopped off (orders of John Berry Deputy Director and Frank Middleton Production Manager who I had to escort) and the proposed Dunsil / Waterloo seam project being abandoned
• Bad storm, terrific winds blew down part of one of the wooden cooling towers, 9th Jan 1976
• Water broke in at 24sC overcast to 27s ramp, Feb 1976, unknown source, from above strata and not old workings. (I had taken a sample to the Laboratory for analysis)
• Fire 59s transfer point, Apr 1976
• 19 RB Crane overturned at old Brickworks coal stocking site, 19 May 1976
• Pit was laid off due to a damaged balance rope at No1 skip shaft, 28th Sep 1976
• Fire at 59s gearhead, Jan 1977
• Fall pit bottom bunker road and broken Panzer chain at 66s loader gate packhole, Sep 1977
• Heating at No2 shaft pit top, Aug 1978, closed the shaft (it was actually caused by a welder setting fire to the material near the shaft)
• Massive fall at 10s face, 19 Aug 1979 and hampered production until Nov 1979
• Incident with lorry at Coal Preparation plant, Dec 1979
• Incident at No2 shaft, winder tripped out, slack rope, 29 men sent home, 19th June 1980
• Ron Jones, electric shock in Tub Shop, 16 Oct 1980
• Large fall of roof at 1s airway lip on 21 / 22 Oct 1980
• Large fall at 10s loader gate Back Rip 23 Oct 1980
• Again another trip out at No2 winder, 27th Oct 1980
• Electrical incident to Collin Waller, pit bottom skip sub-station, 27th Dec 1980
• No2 winder trip out 6pm 31 sent home
• Tripped out again at 6.40pm 7 more sent home 11th Feb 1982
• No2 winder trip out 10.24pm and again at 11.07pm on 20th May 1982
• No2 winder trip out 39 men sent home (in 6 months, 63 men had received medical treatment)
• Inrush of water at 3rd drift conveyor road 7th Sep 1982, unknown source
• Surface incline conveyor structure collapsed Oct 1982
• Fire at 2sA conveyor TP with 1s Following Intake No1 conveyor Jan 1983
• Ignition of hydrogen gas at pit bottom battery loco charging station Apr 1983, no major injury to the 2 electricians (Colin Waller and Paul Brown or charging attendant Norman Dixon
• On the surface the final dirt belt gantry collapsed Dec 1983
• Roller heating at 2s C conveyor Jan 1984
• Heating at 2s airway fault position smoke issuing Feb 1984
• Whilst slinging a large booster fan underneath the chair at No2 shaft, the chain fouled whilst passing the other cage at the meetings and sheared the chain and the fan hurtled down the shaft and smashed through the newly installed buffers 6th June 1984 - fortunately there were no injuries or damage to the shaft sump but new buffers had to be installed by Area Tunnelling Team
• 2s airway heating flared up again June 1984
• Cage caught tubbing in No2 shaft 5th Sep 1984
• Gas found seeping out of floor at Harrison’s hill in No2 pit bottom holes bored and bougeed Feb 1985
• A burst pipe in No2 shaft flooded sump 17th Feb 1986 (I was doing the pumping operations during the strike) see . . .
• Fire at Parkgate Intake Booster drive Aug 1986
• 3rd drift conveyor belt broke Sep 1986
• Electrical dangerous occurrence 9s airway and 1s loader gate junction Nov 1986
• Broken rope at rapid loading bunker service hoist Nov 1986
• Fire at the Thickener tower on coal preparation plant Fire Brigade called Jan 1987
• Fire 2s D conveyor drive Feb 1987
• Fire at Following Intake No3 conveyor drive Mar 1988
• Major fall at Parkgate return drift manriding station re-rip old gate in Top Hard stall working above collapsed - closed the pit, May 1988
• Fire at No2 pit top low landing Operator’s cabin Fire Brigade called again 12th Dec 1988
• Conveyor fire 34s loader gate development Feb 1989
• 17s loader gate manriding conveyor broke 16th Feb 1989
• 17s loader gate belt broke again 24th Feb 1989

• Photo above shows a Lorry Crane tipped over in the pit yard
• Fire at Parkgate Bunker in feed 54” conveyor May 1989
• Face fall 3s, 12th Mar 1989
• Fire 3s Loader gate A conveyor 11th Aug 1990
• Total loss of power to colliery 9.20am Saturday 8th Dec until 5pm Monday 10th Dec due to heavy snow pit closed
• Further problems for 4 days due to snow no water, electrical problems
• Lost power again for a time 11th Dec 1990
• Total loss of power to main fan and booster fans at 34s and 18s Airway 8th Mar 1991
• Heating at 32s loader gate overcast July 1991
• Heating on 3s face line July 1991
• Fire at 4th Drift No3 conveyor Oct 1991
• Bo-bo loco derailed at bottom of 3rd drift 13th Nov 1992
• Surface boiler valve blew 9th Dec 1992
• Manriding car derailment at 41s airway 18th Feb 1993
• Pony loco derailment 3s following Conveyor road junction with Slant gate 2nd Mar 1993
• Bo-bo loco derailment 41s airway 17th Mar 1993
• Recurrence of 3s heating 10th May 1993 nitrogen pumped in
• 1s airway paddy derailment and rope breakage 22nd May 1993
• Pony loco derailment top of Return drift 24th Sep 1993
• Bo-bo loco derailment at 55s airway and 3s airway junction 7th Nov 1993
• Bo-bo loco derailment 3s Following Intake 28th Nov 1993
• There were 2 incidents in the early 1960s when the balance rope on No1 shaft chairs became detached and fell down the shaft fortunately not causing too much damage
• There was also an unusual one was when a night-shift Overman Jack Todd left his smouldering pipe in his dirty side locker when he went underground, and by 1am on Friday 8th October 1976 a fire had destroyed 13 lockers in the pithead baths
• There was another more serious incident in 1963 when Jack Corden a stoker in the fire holes under some kind of pressure from the foreman who was always getting on to him suddenly retaliated in a heated argument and swung his shovel at Fred Forman the foreman stoker and struck him on the neck and head and unfortunately killed him. The verdict at Birmingham Assizes Court was murder and sent to jail with a plea for leniency. Later the charge was changed to manslaughter and he served 2 years in jail. Along with other surveyors I attended a course on de-gassing techniques for forcing / exhausting fans at Lound Hall on 23 Sep 1982
• Remarks made in the survey note book by one of my predecessors Jesse Price, on the abandonment survey of 7s district LHG in 1944 stated ’this gate is neither fit for man nor beast’. Timber draggers were employed up this gate as no rails were laid to haul tubs or trams. Obviously the gate was very low, crushed and winding and numerous settings with the dial were needed to complete the survey. On another district 3s RH Gate earlier in 1943 he quoted.... ‘a rough passage’. Obviously this was another tortuous low gate. There were several other gates in later years that would be associated with bad work. 22s Airway was so bad that normal 2 piece arches could not travel on flats so 3 piece arches were made for that gate. The idea was to spread.
• Prior to Nationalisation in 1947, Ollerton colliery was owned by the Butterley Company Ltd. The Top Hard seam leases were with Lord Savile, Wellow Glebe, Kirton Glebe, Walesby Glebe, Ollerton Church and Poor Estate, NG Wardell a farmer, Clara May Guest, Ann Outram, Donald McCann, FW Nuthall and Eliza Anne Barrett.
• The Chief Surveyor for Butterley Co was John Holbrook (service certificate) who died in service on 28th January 1930 aged 78. His successor was Ernest Severn Lamb (839) to 1942, followed by A Vic Priest to 1946.
• For the year ending December 1926, 7 acres 1 rood and 7 poles or perches at 4 ft 5 in thick and 2 acres 3 roods and 2 perches at 5 ft 0 in thick was worked giving a value of £1,656 1s 6d.

There were 20 odd machines and that was just one pit !!!