14/11/2021
My own family history
Mining accidents, the first tragedy occurred at Ibstock Colliery on the 10th of March 1899.
My Grandfather Walter Hextall’s brother John William Hextall was killed whilst working below ground at the colliery.
The next two accidents happened at Snibston Colliery, Coalville.
My uncle David Bernard Hextall was sadly killed on the 9th Jan 1951 while working on his nightshift when part of the coal seam roofing he was working on collapsed,
Bernard as he was always known was crushed under the falling coal.
An Inquest was held to look into the cause of his death it found that no one was to blame for the accident.
The accident was caused by a geological fault in the coal seam.
My father Walter never spoke to any members of his family about the major accident he was involved in as a young hewer at Snibston colliery.
It was not until at his funeral many years later that an old work colleague of his came forward and told me the story of what happened on that fateful day.
The old fellow went on to say that he was a leader of a Snibston colliery mining rescue team which had been sent down the mine and that they had found several miners injured and trapped at one of the pits coal faces, he went on to tell me that it was soon found that one person was missing below ground and it was my father Walter Hextall.
After more searches, they still could not find my father Walter. He told me that it was at this point the pit manager wanted to tell my mother that Walter was lost and that it was at this point he had asked the pit Deputy that the search parties should be given one more chance to find Walter before telling Glad his wife the grim news.
They found my dad buried under coal rubble they also found that he had a large wooden roofing pit prop across his back and that his back was broken.
Dad had to spend a full year in Leicester hospitals recovering from his back injuries. Sadly my father went on for the rest of his life having to wear a whalebone corset back support, was plagued with severe back pain but this did not stop him from going back to the colliery to work as soon as he felt well enough to do so. I was not born at this time but I do remember that my dad could never lift or pick up any of his children properly ever again. Strange thinking back he never held me up in his arms whilst standing.
For that sacrifice, because he was no longer fit enough he could no longer be a face worker so he was compensated for this with a life's work injury pension of three pounds a week (wow) and that was not even index-linked, (increased yearly)
Towards the end of his life, it hardly covered the cost of a small tin of his favourite Benson & Hedges S***f.
Sorry, it makes my blood boil knowing how the Government and National Coal board got away with it at that time re-injury and deaths compensation claims.
My father was later given the job of a safety officer at the Snibston pit and he went on to retire after serving 50 years. He had spent all his working life in the one mine Snibston from the age of 13 to 63 years.
Working at Snibston Colliery (Dads stories to me)
When my father started working down the pit the starting age was 14 years but my dad started down the pit at 13.
His first job was helping to push barrows of coal from the pit face to the pit head.
As a young teenager, he went on to look after the pit ponies and guided them pulling coal trucks to the pit head. In his early twenties, he got to work for what was then good money on the pit face. He was now a hewer mining for coal with a pickaxe and working some times in waist-high cold water often in four foot high Coal seams he would tell how they would pickaxe out coal from the seam and push it down to their feet were boys and women to pick up coal by hand and place it into trucks, men where men in those days they had to be there was no other choices but to get on with it, ask a guy to do that nowadays and they would laugh at you and that includes me.
For years my dad would take with him to work the same sandwiches for his lunch down the mine, sliced bread spread with Pork dipping and topped with a small pinch of salt, he would also take a plastic flask filled with water
I can remember as a wee boy sometimes being awake really early in the morning and mum would sit next to a roaring coal fire which mum had made earlier that morning I have to smile no health and safety back then. How happy I was sipping sweet milky tea and watching my mum making and packing up his lunch at around 5:30 am all this was whilst dad was getting ready for work. I also remember being in my mum’s arms watching dad through our living room window leaving home at 9 Rowan Ave, Greenhill for work on his bicycle and thinking how dark it was outside it was pitch black because there was no street lighting at that time.
