My great grandfather was James Beech, who was one of the first miners brought out when the tragedy happened in 1912. James lived at 42, Barnburgh Street, Denaby Main, South Yorkshire.

Above is the original newspaper article on the death of Sarah Beech, James Beech's wife . . . who was my mother’s grannie. You will notice a third of the way down on the right hand side, my mother is listed as a mourner.....Miss Irene Butterfield.... who then, years later, married my father, Stephen Newton. Irene kept this newspaper clipping all of her life, and I only found it yesterday as we were going through her possessions. Amazing! Also there is a note of where my mother was born.....and again I can't find it on Google maps...maybe you can help again. Irene Butterfield was born at 5 Adams Yard, Mexborough, on May 24th 1919.

His name is on the memorial stone, which my mother, Irene Newton, unveiled as the guest of honour in 2012, I accompanied her on that day.

She was 93 years old at the time.

We understand that the miners were given Pit check tokens, and an allocation number. We would love to find James Beech's allocation number at the time when he was working at the mine.

Would there be any records that could be checked to find this information out, as it is an important part of the jigsaw that we are trying to piece together?

This is the little video I made that day, Click on the above photo to view it.
Irene Butterfield 720p

Irene Newton, nee Butterfield, Sadly passed away yesterday, 26 Sep 2017, and she was full of stories from her childhood in Denaby Main.

Dear Fionn,
Your List of Pit Terminologies does not mention FILLER.   I presume it was someone who filled the tubs of hewn coal, but as the work described under COLLIER included filling tubs, could there be any other more specific task provided by a Filler.   

My grandfather William Green who was killed in the Cadby disaster was described as a Filler, so I have a personal interest in this.

Kind regards,

Filler: – a miner at the coal face with a shovel, he could be filling corves with coal, corves being strong osier baskets in which the coals were conveyed.  He could be shovelling coal onto conveyors, often working in very difficult places often lying on their sides in a space with the roof only 20-22 inches from the floor.