A Yorkshire Almanac Comprising 365 Historical Extracts, Red-letter Days and Customs, and Astronomical and Meteorological Data
Huskar Disaster Monument in Silkstone churchyard: “READER REMEMBER! Every neglected call of God will appear against Thee at the Day of Judgment. Let this Solemn Warning then sink deep into thy heart & so prepare thee that the Lord when he cometh may find thee WATCHING” (sic) (Theasby 2021/08/12).
Sheffield Independent. 1838/07/07. Devastating Storm. Sheffield. Get it:
.Joseph Holling, of Silkstone, miner, said, “I was working in the Huskar pit. My cousin, Elizabeth Holling, was working in the same pit. As I was making the best of my way out of the pit, by the day hole, I was met by a quantity of water, rushing down the day hole. There were about eleven of us, and they were all drowned but me. The water swam me down the day hole, and drove me into a slit in another boardgate, and by that means I escaped. We went up the day hole to save our lives. We asked William Lamb if we were to go out, and he said, no. We kept bothering him, and at last he said we must please ourselves. We did not know what we were going out for; we thought it was for fire; but when we got into the day hole, we met the water. The water in the day hole was stopped by a door, through which we had passed, against which it drove the children; and they were all drowned against the door. The day hole is about four feet wide, and five and a half feet high. If we had all stopped in the bottom of the pit, we should have been safe. None of the men told us to go to the day hole. We did not hear Batty tell us to go out of the day hole. John Lamb and James Sykes came from the Moor End pit, and told us to put our lights out, for fear of fire. Another boy was in the day hole, and escaped. He was standing in a slit, and the water went past him.” Joseph Garnett, the father of one of the children, inquired of a boy who had come out for his child, and could only learn that he might be in the day hole. “I assisted to get six out; but when I got to my child, I tried to get him out, but so many lay upon him that I could not, and I was so much hurt that I left. I cannot blame anybody.” [Accidental death.]
Does the reported repetition of “The day hole is about four feet wide, and five and a half feet high” in the evidence of Joseph Holling, child-miner, and Benjamin Mellor, the owner’s agent, indicate that witnesses had been coached before this cursory inquest so as to avoid any imputation of liability re safety procedures, quite aside from the lethal engineering of the pit? (An example re the latter: since time immemorial dayholes either slope upwards into mines to allow ground water to flow out and avoid dangerous ingress, or a foolproof drainage system is devised.) Was the employment law reform that followed – Mines and Collieries Act 1842 – the result of a wider perception that the owners had got away with homicide, or were people simply upset that children had been the victims?
Several links:
Day drifts or day holes are galleries or inclined planes driven from the surface so that men can walk underground to and from their work without descending and ascending a shaft.
Full inscription on the principal face of the memorial – Neil Theasby also has photos of the rest:
Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. Mark XIII Chap 33 Verse.
THIS MONUMENT was erected to perpetuate the remembrance of an awful visitation of the Almighty which took place in this Parish on the 4th day of July 1838.
On that eventful day the Lord sent forth His Thunder, Lightning, Hail and Rain, carrying devastation before them, and by a sudden irruption of Water into the Coalpits of R.C. Clarke Esqr. twenty six human beings whose names are recorded here were suddenly Summon’d to appear before their Maker.
READER REMEMBER!
Every neglected call of God will appear against Thee at the Day of Judgment.
Let this Solemn Warning then sink deep into thy heart & so prepare thee that the Lord when he cometh may find thee WATCHING.
Something to say? Get in touch
DEVASTATING STORM.
LOSS OF TWENTY-SIX LIVES AT SILKSTONE COLLIERY.
On Wednesday, a most remarkable and violent storm of thunder, rain, and hail passed over a portion of the West Riding, in a direction from south-west to north-east. The chief violence of it seems to have fallen upon a line of country less than two hundred yards wide, from Grenoside, passing over Stainbro’, Birdwell, Silkstone, and Dodworth, towards Worsbro’. In that mountainous part of the country the narrow vallies naturally abound in water courses, ordinarily small, but swelled with great rapidity by sudden rains very far beyond their usual boundaries. Not a season passes, probably, without some partial floods; but we cannot learn that in the memory of the oldest person living, there has been an inundation so extensive and devastating as that we have now to record; and we are not aware that in the annals of this part of the country any catastrophe has been recorded which has been so extensively fatal in its consequences.
The storm passed Grenoside about two o’clock in the afternoon. The rain was extremely heavy, and hailstones fell abundantly in the yard of the Norfolk Arms, as large as well-grown filberts. The thunder and lightning were awful.
At Wentworth Castle the storm seemed to have increased in severity; the hailstones there were so large as to break all the glass in the conservatories, completely devastating the gardens by breaking the fruit trees, shrubs, &c. to a considerable extent. The damage done at this place, to the conservatories and gardens alone has been estimated at £500, and even this large sum will probably be found too small to repair the devastation.
At Bury Moor, Birdwell, Dodworth, &c., wherever the hailstones fell they have cut up the crops in the most singular and destructive manner. The hailstones are described to have been literally lumps of ice, and many persons affirm that on measurement they found them to be four or five inches in circumference. Wherever these stones have fallen, the crops, especially of corn, have been beaten out of the ground, and completely battered to pieces. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Denton, of Bury Moor, are reported each to have sustained damage to the extent of several hundred pounds.
The floods have been tremendous. Wherever the water-courses have been at all confined, or have taken, as they commonly do, a winding direction, there the surplus water has been for a time dammed up, till, bursting its way, it has roared along, sweeping down walls to the width of forty yards, and scattering some of their heaviest stones over the next field, ploughing the roads into deep furrows, uprooting or breaking down trees, and from the fields and gardens carrying away soil and crops and leaving only the bare rock. At the village of Silkstone, where the principal establishment, with the colliery of R. C. Clarke, Esq., is situated, there is a remarkable instance of the extent and overwhelming power of the inundation. At the entrance of the village from the Thurgoland road, there is the confluence of two streams, one a considerable brook running in a northwardly direction, and the other a small rivulet running eastward. They bound on two sides the coal yard of Mr. Clarke, and meet at its lowest corner. Above their confluence, the course of each of these streams, but especially of the brook, is marked by devastation. Young trees uprooted, and underwood in abundance, attest the power with which the torrent passed along. But at the point of confluence where the united streams pass under the road, we see the most striking proof of its force. Dammed up for the time, the water appears to have risen to the height of eight or ten feet above its ordinary level. At last, overturning the walls, and bursting across the road, it sought the nearest way to the bed of the stream. On one side of the road, is a row of fine poplars, apparently of about 20 years growth. The roots of all these are completely laid bare, some of them are entirely uprooted, and several smaller trees have not only been uprooted, but have their trunks broken asunder. The damage to Mr. Clark, at this place, not to speak of the pits which we shall have to mention hereafter, is very considerable. Timber, to the value of some scores of pounds, was swept away from his yard; and at his house, situated near the village, his garden, like those of his neighbours,has been devastated, and the glass in his hothouses is destroyed. At the corner of Mr. Clark’s yard, is a small shop, for the sale of grocery and drapery goods. The cellars of that house were filled with water; in the low rooms, it rose suddenly about five feet high; and the inhabitants only saved themselves by opening the door, which let out the water sufficiently to prevent it from filling the house. Some of the houses in the lower part of the village, we observed, had been inundated to the depth of five feet. It is wonderful, that in these cases, none of the children perished.
The scene of the heart-rending catastrophe which we are now called upon to narrate, is about a mile from the village of Silkstone, on the road to Thurgoland. Mr. Clark has two pits – one known as the Moor End, and the other as the Huskar pit. Though these pits are not very well situated for facility of conveyance, the remarkable excellence of the Silkstone coal is such, that it is in very great demand, the supply of which furnishes employment to several hundred persons. Indeed, almost the whole population of the large village of Silkstone is maintained by the collieries of Mr. Clark, and of Henry Wilson, Esq., of Bank’s Hall. Children of very tender years are extensively employed in the pits, as hurriers, hangers on, openers and shutters of trap doors, the givers of signals, &c. The shafts of the Moor End and the Huskar pits are only a few hundred yards apart, and the two pits are connected underground by the boardways, made by the getting of the coal. There is also a futterill, (foot o’the hill,) or day hole, of great length, about four feet wide, and from five to six feet high, which has its entrance at the foot of the hill, in a neighbouring wood, and leads to both pits. This day hole is used for the conveyance of horses into and from the pits, and, it appears, the miners occasionally use this way, though they ordinarily descend and ascend by the shafts. There is a constant rising of water in the pits, and at the Moor End pit, an engine of great power is constantly employed in pumping it out, the water being disgorged by a sough for the purpose. With this notice of the localities, our readers will be prepared to understand the evidence which follows. It seems that the storm reached this place between two and three o’clock, and lasted till about four. While the storm was at its height, the engine tenter of the Moor End pit noticed the rapid rising of the water, till it began to run into the sough by which the engine pump discharges its water. He immediately informed the banksman, who called down the mouth of the pit, to order the miners to be collected from their work, and brought out; but before this could he accomplished, the water was flowing into the sough so fast, that the engine could not be worked. The people in the pit, alarmed by the unusual intimation, and needlessly imagining that the danger was from fire damp, extinguished their lights, and made their way to the shaft of the Huskar pit. But there, in consequence of the water having got into the firing hole of the engine, and the intensity of the storm having driven the overground men from the pit hill, there was no steam. Among the multitude of men and children collected at the foot of the shaft, darkness, terror, and “a dismal hubbub,” to use the words of one of the witnesses, prevailed. Their fears suggested to them the belief that they were in danger of an immediate explosion of fire damp, and ignorant of the war of the elements that was raging above, they could not imagine why they were not drawn up the shaft. Such was the noise and confusion, that the brave and sagacious men who retained their presence of mind could not make themselves heard, or exercise that control which might have saved so many lives. It does not appear that any individual in or out of the pit had the least notion that there was any flow of water into the day hole, and therefore, when the terrified children had tormented one of the miners into a sort of half permission to go out through the day hole, they made their way in a body into that passage, and all, with two or three exceptions, perished. From the shaft of the pit to the mouth of the day hole is a distance of about 950 yards, and the place where the fatal event took place is about half way.
The agony, confusion and alarm that prevailed among all the poor persons about when the dreadful truth came out, is indescribable, but it may be faintly imagined from some touching expressions of several of the bereaved parents who gave evidence on the inquest. Mr. Clark was quickly on the spot, and did everything that was possible under the circumstances. Many distressing fears were removed by the quickness with which the bodies were extricated; but many, alas, were too fully realised. The Rev. Mr. Watkins, the excellent vicar of the parish, also hastened to the place, and anxiously rendered all the assistance and consolation, of which the case admitted. The names, ages, and residences of the sufferers, are as follows:-
SILKSTONE.
Isaac Wright, aged 13
Abraham Wright – 9
Elizabeth Carr – 13
Kitty Garnett – 11
John Gothard – 9
Hannah Webster – 14
Ellen Parker – 15
Sarah Jukes – 11
Hannah Taylor – 17
James Clarkson – 16
Elizabeth Clarkson – 11
Francis Hoyland – 13
Elizabeth Holling – 16
Geo. Burkinshaw – 11
Josh. Burkinshaw – 7
George Lamb – 8
Sarah Newton – 8
Ann Moss – 13
James Turton – 11
Wm. Womersley – 8
DODWORTH.
Elijah Hutchinson, aged 13
Wm. Atick – 12
Samuel Atick – 10
THURGOLAND.
John Simpson, aged 9½
George Garnett – 9
Mary Sellars – 10
Mr. Lee, the coroner of the district, being from home, the duty of conducting the melancholy enquiry which the law requires, devolved on Thomas Badger, Esq., who appointed it to be held at the Red Lion Inn, Silkstone, on Thursday evening. At four o’clock, the coroner met the Jury at Dodworth, and having viewed the bodies lying there, they proceeded to view those in the township of Thurgoland. After a long and wearisome circuit, they reached Silkstone about seven o’clock, and there they had to perambulate the village, and view the twenty children who lay dead there. It was a melancholy business. As the gentlemen went from house to house, sometimes taking the houses in succession, it seemed as if the destroying angel had visited the place, and scarcely left a house in which “there was not one dead.” It was a most piteous thing to witness the grief-stricken faces of the men, the bitter anguish of the mothers, and the wailing of the children, as the Jury passed along, inspecting the bruised and blackened bodies. At eight o’clock, this painful formulary having been completed, and the Coroner and Jury having taken a slight and hasty refreshment, the enquiry proceeded.
The Coroner, in addressing the jury, remarked, that the scenes of death and devastation it had been their duty to witness, had been of the most painful kind. Many individuals had suffered materially in their property. He understood that Mr. Darwin and Mr. Denton, of Bury Moor, had had damage done to the amount of several hundred pounds; and the jury had seen how fields and gardens had been devastated, and walls, bridges, and roads destroyed to a much greater extent than he could have imagined. The scenes they had witnessed would give them some idea of the force with which the water must have poured down the day hole by which these poor children were endeavouring to get out of the pit. It would be their duty to inquire whether this sad catastrophe had been purely accidental, or whether it could have been prevented by any provision which a reasonable and proper degree of care could supply. He was anxious that the enquiry should be perfect and complete. Mr. Clark, owner of the pit, and the Rev. Mr. Watkins, their vicar and excellent resident magistrate, were present, and he should be very happy to put to the witnesses any questions that they or any of the friends of the deceased could suggest; and should it appear that any degree of blame attached to any party, it would be his care to have him brought before the jury.
John Hinchliffe, of Silkstone Low Mill, Dodworth, engine tenter to Mr. Robert Coldwell Clark, the owner of the Moor End Colliery, Silkstone, said – I was working the water engine at Moor End, between two and three o’clock yesterday, when the storm took place. The water from the dyke, near the pit, began to rise very high and rapidly, till it ran into the pit. Then I went and told the banksman, Francis Garnett, he had better call the miners out.
The Coroner here interrupted the evidence, to desire that any of the friends of the deceased, who were about, should be admitted into the room, as he had told them, at their respective houses, that he would examine any witnesses they desired.
Examination continued – Garnett instantly went to the pit, and I returned to the water engine, which was about fifty yards from where Garnett was. The storm was so severe, that I could not work the engine, because it damped the steam. The children had plenty of time to come out of the bye-pit when I went to tell Garnett, if they had only come to the bottom; but they took the wrong road. The water did not rise to a great extent in the pit, and never got into the bye-pit bottom. There were but five or six hours’ extra pumping of the water from the pit. When the engine has stood twenty-four hours the water will get into the bye-pit bottom. None of the deceased were related to me. I do not blame any person on account of their death; and I think that the banksmen, and all the others about it, did their duty. As soon as the water began to abate in the dyke, I set the engine to work, and, therefore, I could not assist to get any of the bodies out. It was not into the mouth of the pit that the water ran, but into the sough by which the water pumped out of the pit runs off. If the engine had been worked, the water she pumped up could not have been delivered. The case was similar to that of a mill in backwater. The children had run, from both the pits, to the day hole, or futterill, (or foot o’ the hill,) by which way they can get out, instead of being drawn up the shaft by the engineer. They rarely go out by the day hole, but are generally drawn up.
Francis Garnett, banksman at the Moor End pit, said, John Hinchliffe came to me when I was in the engine house where the coals are drawn out of the pit, and he said the water had risen and was running up the drifts and into the engine pit, and I had better call the colliers out. I went to the pit hill and shouted down the mouth of the pit and told the hingers on to tell the colliers to come out directly, and they shouted “throw nought down,” and I answered “get on.” The depth of the pit is 100 yards all but a foot. One of the hingers on got on and came up, and during the time I was setting the motties (the sticks that come up with the corves to shew who has sent them) down, a man named George Stringer came out and said the water was coming into the bye-pit, and he would go down again and tell them to go out at the Huskar pit. Edward Goddard said he would go, and he went down the shaft in a corf to tell them. I had hung my slate up. I went to the bottom of the jenny and helped another man, named Lockwood, to take the water barrel out. John Hinchliffe came down the jenny and said we were to go up to the common pit to help to get the men out there, which we did, drawing them up with a horse and the power of men. We pulled two men and boys out, and I asked some boys who were coming up from the day hole if they had seen my children. They had not. I then set off to the day hole and again enquired of some boys, who said they had seen the children go up the day hole boardgate, and I knew,if it was so they were all lost, but as Providence provided, there was only one, my daughter Catherine. I had four children in the pit. When I got a little farther, I was told they were all drowned in the day hole. I could not get a bit further then – I was stagnated. I got agate of going as soon as I could, but I could not help to get them out. I thought I had not one to look at. I have no blame to lay to anybody, but I cannot account for their going up the day hole.
Mr. Clark explained that what was called the jenny was an inclined plane, up which the full waggons are drawn by the engine.
By the Coroner: I have no blame to attach to Batty, the banksman. I consider it to have been entirely an accident, as far as I can tell.
Wm. Batty, of Dodworth, banksman, was informed by the Coroner, that in the course of the painful duty they had to discharge, in viewing the bodies, some reflections had been made on him, and he therefore would not put him upon his oath. Batty said he was at the Huskar pit, and desired the engineman to draw the men out; but he said he could not, for be had no steam. I therefore told the men at the bottom they must wait there: but as soon as he could get ready, I told them to get on, and we pulled them up as fast as we could, bringing up three or four at a time. I cannot tell how many were there, because the miners of both pits had come to the bottom of the shaft. I did not know that anything was the matter in the pit. I did not swear at them when they asked to be drawn up, and say they might stay where they were. I said – “You’re like to wait a bit, till we can get some steam.” The heavy rain caused the stoppage of the engine. The storm was the most severe I ever saw. The storm was so rough that we could not safely stop on the pit hill. I was not aware that anything was the matter in the pit, or that the miners were in any danger. The hailstones were large square pieces of ice. I did not see any four or five inches round. I saw the bodies of twenty boys and girls got out.
By a Juror: It has been reported that you ordered the men in the pit to put out the lights – is that true? No, I did not call down the pit to the miners, for I was not aware anything was amiss. Isaac Carr was the first man who came out, and I think he went back again. I think he did not say anything to me about the children.
George Mann, aged 13, a boy who runs corves in at the top of Huskar pit, stated that Wm. Batty shouted down the pit and told them they must stop a bit, and they would not stop, but went and met the water up the day hole boardgate. Batty did not damn or swear, but seemed wishful to do all he could to get them out. I did not see Batty do anything I thought wrong. The engine was without steam. It rained so hard they could not get out to mend the fire. The hailstones broke the windows of the engine house.
The Coroner having inquired if any person wished to put questions to the boy, one of the spectators who had requested that the boy should be heard, said the boy had told many persons a diffent story.
Jonathan Jukes said, the boy told him that the children were at the bottom of the pit, begging and praying to be drawn out, and Batty shouted they must go out of the day hole, and be damned to them. Jas. Richards and John Mitchell heard the boy say so.
Mann denied ever having said so to Jukes, but Jukes persisted in his statement. Mann said he had heard that Wm. Lamb said so; but he afterwards heard it was not so, but that Lamb said, “D- you, make a less noise.”‘
Lamb said, he was at the bottom, and could not hear Batty speak. He had lost one of his own children.
Batty said he used the best means in his power to get the steam up as soon as possible.
John Miller, labourer on the Huskar-pit hill, said, when the children came to the bottom of the Huskar pit, we did all we could to get the steam up as soon as possible. The steam would not have been down, but for the storm, which was so severe that it was not possible for any man to go out. We went up to the knees in water to get at the engine fire, and as soon as we could get steam we began to draw them up. When the children were making such a dismal din at the bottom of the pit, I told them to have a little patience, and they would be pulled out as soon as possible. I do not think the children could hear me, and we could not get down to them. I was near Batty, and if he had sworn at them and told them to go to the day hole, I should have heard him.
George Bostwick, the engine tenter of the Huskar pit, said he kept firing as hard as he could, but could not keep the fire in at all, on account of the storm and the water getting into the fire hole. It was drowned out, and the steam could not be kept up. As soon as we could get the steam up, we began to draw the miners out. I was never away from the firing hole and the engine house.
Joseph Holling, of Silkstone, miner, said – I was working, yesterday, in the Huskar pit. My cousin, Elizabeth Holling, was working in the same pit. As I was making the best of my way out of the pit, by the day hole, I was met by a quantity of water, rushing down the day hole. There were about eleven of us, and they were all drowned but me. The water swam me down the day hole, and drove me into a slit in another boardgate, and by that means I escaped. We went up the day hole to save our lives. We asked William Lamb if we were to go out, and he said, no. We kept bothering him, and at last he said we must please ourselves. We did not know what we were going out for; – we thought it was for fire; but when we got into the day hole, we met the water. The water in the day hole was stopped by a door, through which we had passed, against which it drove the children; and they were all drowned against the door. The day hole is about four feet wide, and five and a half feet high. If we had all stopped in the bottom of the pit, we should have been safe. None of the men told us to go to the day hole. We did not hear Batty tell us to go out of the day hole. John Lamb and James Sykes came from the Moor End pit, and told us to put our lights out, for fear of fire. Another boy was in the day hole, and escaped. He was standing in a slit, and the water went past him.
Uriah Jubb, hurrier in the Huskar pit, said, – I was up the board gate with the others. We heard the water coming, and Elizabeth Taylor and me got into a slit in the day hole, and stopped there till it settled. The water went past us. The slit is a long way above the door, and nearly at the top of the pit, but a good way from the top of the day hole. I had been with the others at the bottom of the shaft, but we could not be drawn up, and I was afterwards told it was because the steam was not upon account of the water in the firing hole.
John Burkinshaw, miner – I was working in the Huskar pit when the accident happened. Two of my children were there, and were both drowned in the day hole. I have heard the evidence given, and believe it to be true, as far as I can understand. I do not blame any body, but believe it to have been an accident.
Benjamin Mellor, agent to Mr. Clarke:- I have been accustomed to collieries all my life. I was at Barnsley when the storm occurred and the accident happened. The day hole commences in a wood belonging to Mr. Holmesworth, and descends, at the rate of six or nine inches in a yard, to the Huskar pit. By this day hole, horses are taken into and out of the pit. Miners can enter the pit that way, if they please. The water ran into the dayhole, not very rapidly, but faster than it could escape, and formed a dam about fifty yards down; then it burst down a brick wall, and, meeting the children coming out, it drove them back against the door in the day hole, where the water accumulated, and they were drowned. The day hole is four feet wide, and five and a half feet high. There the children were found, covered with mud and dirt. There is a small brook near the day hole, but it is dry nearly eight months in the year. The children were drowned about four hundred and fifty yards from the shaft, and about five hundred from the mouth of the day hole.
Joseph Garnett, the father of one of the children, inquired of a boy who had come out for his child, and could only learn that he might be in the day hole. I assisted to get six out; but when I got to my child, I tried to get him out, but so many lay upon him that I could not, and I was so much hurt that I left. I cannot blame anybody.
The Coroner stated that Mr. Clarke was present, and was quite willing to answer any questions which the Jury or any of the friends of the deceased might desire to have put.
The Rev. Mr. Watkins said he was on the spot noon after the accident; and lie could bear testimony to the anxiety which Mr. Clark and every person present shewed, by moving the bodies as quickly as possible, to afford to the friends of the sufferers, and the others who worked in the pit, all the satisfaction which that could afford.
The Coroner having caused proclamation to be made that he was ready to hear any further evidence that any person might be desirous to give, proceeded to address the Jury. It did not appear to him necessary, unless it should be the wish of the Jury, again to go over the evidence. The question was, were they satisfied that this most lamentable catastrophe had not arisen from the carelessness, negligence, or misconduct of any party. If they were satisfied of that, and that the storm brought on by the hand of Providence so suddenly, had caused an excessive overflow of water, desolating, as they had seen, everything in its course; and that these unfortunate children, carried by a torrent of water down the day hole, by which they were endeavouring to escape from the pit, had there perished; if this were their conviction, it was a clear case of accidental death. It had been his most painful duty, in the absence of Mr. Lee, the coroner of the district, to hold that inquiry. He had much rather that the duty had not fallen upon him; but since it was so, be had endeavoured, as was his practice, conscientiously and thoroughly to investigate the matter, and bring every particle of evidence that could be obtained before the Jury. He trusted that nothing had been omitted, and that no possibility was left for any of the friends of the deceased, or other persons, to say hereafter that the matter had not been most completely investigated. It was his most anxious wish that no stone should be left unturned, that no possible inquiry should be shrunk from. If required, he would willingly adjourn the inquest to a future day; but he did not see any probability that any further evidence could be had. The facts of the case all appeared to have been developed. They had heard from a boy, who was one of the unfortunate party, what impelled them to endeavour to escape by the day hole, and bow the calamity occurred. The life of that witness appeared to have been saved by bis having been forced into a slit in another boardgate; and he had to thank God for his preservation. If, therefore, it were the pleasure of the Jury, he would record a verdict – That the deceased were accidentally drowned by the casual and unexpected irruption of water into the pit.
The Jurors immediately replied that they were perfectly satisfied that such was the case. One gentleman remarked, he had some doubts at first; but the evidence he had heard had satisfied him completely.
Thus the inquiry terminated about half-past ten o’clock on Thursday night.
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