The funeral service took place on Tuesday 21st March at Rose Hill Crematorium, Cantley, Doncaster, followed by a wake at Cantley Lodge.

best regards
John Collins
(eldest son)

I have attached a photo of something I had not seen for some thirty odd years. (not since I used to hang on to the crossing gates at Arksey and watch the trains go by).

I am now engaged in putting together a model coal train with a wagon bearing the name of each pit in the Yorkshire coalfield. I am particularly interested in Cadeby and Barnborough if anyone has any old photos.

Meanwhile I am ploughing through books and records; I'm hoping to go to the Mining Museum at Wakefield next week to see their archives.

Many Thanks
Barry Collins

Hi Fionn
I've just been Googling this subject to help my mother, Lilian Jones, find out if someone has written a book about being a nurse at the time of the pit disaster. My husband mentioned that he had heard about it on the radio, but can't remember the details, and I found your website.

It seems there were two pit disasters at Bentley; one in 1931, and one in 1978. The one my mother remembers is the one in 1931. She would have been 6 at the time. Her father, William Brown, was Night Overman, and he gave an account of the rescue which differs from the report in the Mines Department.

My mother has written a book about her family which includes this account, and I'm wondering if this would be of interest to your other correspondents (?).

Mum is 90 now, which is why I'm the one sending her message, but I'm using her laptop, so you can see that she is still quite in touch with the modern world!

Hoping for further communications

Best wishes
Cynthia Gault

Back in 2012 Caren Fox emailed me asking for information for a lady, Joan who was a nurse at bentley, she was trying to finish a book but she had Alzheimers.

There is also a book on Amazon:- At the Coalface: The memoir of a pit nurse Paperback – 16 Jul 2015 so too late for the Bentley accident.

This is the memoir of Joan, who started nursing in the 1940s and whose experiences took her into the Yorkshire mining pits and through the tumult of the 1984-85 miners’ strike.

Joan Hart always knew what she wanted to do with her life. Born in South Yorkshire in 1932, she started her nursing training when she was 16, the youngest age girls could do so at the time. She continued working after she married and her work took her to London and Doncaster, caring for children and miners.

When she took a job as a pit nurse in Doncaster in 1974, she found that in order to be accepted by the men under her care, she would have to become one of them. Most of the time rejecting a traditional nurse’s uniform and donning a baggy miner’s suit, pit boots, a hardhat and a headlamp, Joan resolved always to go down to injured miners and bring them out of the pit herself.

Hi
I wonder if you could help me.

I am a member of a writers club, and trying to help a lady who is writing her life story of the time she worked as a pit nurse.

One part she is struggling with is the Bentley Pit Disaster in 1978. She originally worked for Hatfield Pit but was called to help out at Bentley when the incident occurred.

Her memory of it is vague and some memories are hard to recall emotionally (she is now 80 years of age) 

I noticed on your website a few people who either witnessed the ordeal or a member of their family did. I wonder if you could put me in touch with them so I can ask if they will help my friend with further information for her book.

The two people I would be interested in talking to will be John Roberts and Mr I R Siddons. Could you pass on my email to them so they can help me

Unfortunately, Joan, my friend is not online nor has a computer, as she is quite elderly now, she is also starting with the onset of Alzheimers and wants to complete this book before she is unable to, hence my help is given freely and is why I am emailing you and can help

I look forward to receiving a reply
Caren Fox

Hi,
Do you or anyone else know who actually owns or bought the monument to the people who died in the Pit Disaster of 1931 at Bentley Colliery which is in Arksey Cemetery?

When there was another smaller pit disaster at Bentley Colliery some more names were added to the monument, so who or what organisation paid for them to be added as it may indicate who owns it?

I have enquired at Rose Hill Office, Doncaster and they only say that they are responsible for the monument and grave spaces.

Many thanks
Janet Kitson Roberts

If I visit Arksey Cemetery where my parents, son and brother are buried ( I do not live in Doncaster), I will photograph the monument and send a copy to you.

I found the following on good old Google: Ref: Doncaster Free Press 'Doncaster Reflects on It's dark Days'

You can access events of the last few years in the Free Press on-line which is very useful. The rest you have to go to Waterdale Library in Doncaster for & use microfilm which is old fashioned!!

Best wishes Janet

Those Who Died

Thank you for adding my e-mail to your site. I have had another reply from Rose Hill. They say The Mining Disaster Monument of 1931 (& 1978) at Arksey Cemetery was purchased by the Miners Welfare from donations at the time of the disaster and is therefore their property but it is on the council's land. Due to the collapse of the pits, the responsibility has been taken on by DMBC.

Bentley Library have a book on the 2 disasters.

I was at a friend’s yesterday. She let me photograph this souvenir of the disaster. It is a bit crinkled - about the size of a serviette on crepe-type paper.

Best wishes Jan Kitson Roberts

My father was badly injured and sustained a severe facial injury in the November disaster at Bentley Pit in 1931. He had worked in the mines from being 14 years old, against his father’s wishes, due to the lack of money in the family. Father disobeyed him and they both worked in the Derbyshire mines, then in various mines around Rotherham settling in Askern around 1927, then working at Bentley until the disaster. He was a deputy by then and a first aid man. His two sisters married miners, one became deputy manager of Bentley in the 50s.

Father received compensation of £70 the consultant in 1984 claimed that based on the severity of the injuries he would support a modern day claim but the mine had been privately owned, at the time of the disaster it was the property of Messrs. Barber, Walker and Company Limited. The consultant, an ears nose and throat consultant, after taking x-rays, found it hard to believe that such delicate work to restore my father’s face had actually been performed in Doncaster Royal Infirmary in the 1930s.

Once out of hospital he was only able to get casual work until 1940 when he found full time employment working as a plate layer on the railways were he stayed for 25 years. The accident left him with epileptic fits. He was 31 at the time of the accident and lived in Askern near Doncaster his name was James Redvers Askey.

I never heard my father complain or regret, he made the best of what ever came along. Mother never gave in either, they married in August 1929 my sister was born in May 1930.

The £70 bought them a gypsy caravan which they put on my grandfathers land. Their stroke of luck came when father applied for work on the railway and was accepted. I have known him have a fit during the night and still be off to work at 5 in the morning (he never had a fit at work).

In 1960 they built a bungalow. I admire them both but for me my hero has to be James Redvers Askey born 1900.

Hello, I came across the picture of the miniature rail wagon that Barry Collins sent in. I thought it may be of interest to him or some other followers of your site to see the attached pictures. I assume that the black and white picture is of the loading staithe on the River Don, the Humber sloop loaded with the crew breaking ice is "Phyllis" built in 1907 her skipper was Harold Harness. The rail wagons can be seen above the ship.

Could someone tell me the approximate year (I think late 1940's) and also where exactly on the Don was the staithe?

With thanks to HKSPS (Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society) For The Photo
 

The colour picture is "Phyllis" today; We found her in Scotland and now own her and have restored her back to sail over the last 10 years. We would like to bring her back to the Don as a sort of pilgrimage to the Mine and the work she did.

Photo by Kate Smith

Best regards Kath Jones.

Hello

This is a complete longshot, but couldn't help but try!

I work for The Sheffield College based on Granville Road, and we've come across a photo of a steam train in the 1960s passing by the building (The Farm) on site we currently stand on. We'd like to use this photo on an information board in our grounds, so would like to find out if we could gain permission.

We have so far tracked it's origins to a book published in 1990 by a local company called Platform 5. They have informed us it was taken by someone called Barry Collins, but they don't have a record for him as it was pre-mass technology. I have searched for Mr Collins using a variety of possible other key phrases on Google, and have twice come across by emails sent and featured on your website by a Mr Barry Collins - the majority of other results lead to websites based in Australia.

As this Mr Collins is apparently based in South Yorkshire, and has posted about the coal mining carts, I was wondering if it could be the Mr Collins we're searching for!

So would it be possible, if you still have his contact details/email address to please pass on this email to the gentleman who has been in touch with your site, on the off-chance it is the correct Mr Collins?

Thank you
Gemma