Sheffield Independent – Monday 23 November 1874

The Burial of the Dead.

Of the twenty-three men who lost their lives on Friday, more than half that number were buried yesterday. The bodies of several others would also have been taken to their final resting place had that been possible, but the demands made upon the undertakers were more than they could execute. Some funerals consequently had to be postponed, because sufficient coffins could not be made in time.

In the expectation that most of the bodies would be interred, and that the funeral ceremonies would be more than usually impressive, the villages in the neighbourhood of the Rawmarsh colliery were visited by large numbers of more or less sympathetic spectators. The colliery, too, was a point to which many hundreds directed their steps. Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Doncaster and almost all the colliery villages within an easy distance of Warren Vale furnished a contingent. But for all they were able to see, they might as well have remained at home. They were not permitted to ascend the pit bank, though they were allowed for a time to “wander at their own sweet will ” about the colliery premises, and to witness the ascent and descent of the cages from a distance.

Even on the bank itself there was nothing to be seen that would have compensated for a mile’s walk through the November mist and fog that shrouded all the country round, “as it were, with a thick mantle.” So thick was the mist that many who had started from distant villages to visit the scene of Friday’s disaster were unable to reach their destination, but wandered for hours in the roads and lanes without being much nearer the pit than they were before. All along the low lying grounds the mist was so thick and heavy that it was impossible to see more than a few yards distance. Towards noon the sun appeared through the mist like a large ball of crimson ; but it speedily disappeared, and during much of the afternoon and the greater part of the evening the fog became thicker than ever. At the pit itself men were employed during the whole of the day in repairing the damage

Swinton.

The village had a dreary, desolate look, shrouded as it was in thickest mist, and the people in the street looked even more desolate as they stood in the cold, waiting to see the funerals of the colliers, who had been taken there from the pit bank two days ago.

Of the twenty-three men killed six were from Swinton, and it had been arranged to bury four of the bodies yesterday. The churchyard was crowded with spectators at three o’clock, but none of the corpses had then arrived, and it was subsequently ascertained that the coffins had not been supplied in some cases.

At four o’clock however, the first body was carried into the church- yard. It was that of Samuel Tomlinson. The coffin was borne by his fellow-miners, and behind it walked Mr. Moulson, the president of the South Yorkshire Miners’ Association, and many of the members. The widow of the deceased, and several of his relatives, followed; but none of them manifested much emotion, except the widow, who wept bitterly.

Scarcely had the corpse been taken through the gates of the burial ground when a second procession appeared, at the head of which was carried the body of Frederick Cliffe. Behind the coffin came a string of relatives and friends, some of whom showed unbounded grief. The Rev. John Levett, the incumbent, waited for a considerable time in expectation of the arrival of two other bodies, those of John Jowett and Henry Stead, but they came not, and at last he proceeded with the burial service. The ceremony was very touching, and as the bodies were lowered into the graves, bare- headed men and sorrow-stricken women sobbed aloud as they thought of the terrible end of their loved ones. The voice of the clergyman was tremulous with emotion as he read the service, and even the most callous of the spectators were moved more than they liked to confess by the sad scene.

At dusk the other bodies had not reached the churchyard, and it was very doubtful then whether they would be interred that day, so the people dispersed, whispering to each other about the calamity, and sympathising with those who had suffered by it. The body of Luke Oxley, which had also been removed to Swinton, was conveyed to West Melton in the afternoon, where it had been arranged to place it in a vault with that of his brother, Isaac Oxley, who was also killed by the explosion. An incident almost heartrending as to its character occurred in relation to the identity of Luke Oxley. The corpse was taken from the pit bank to the house occupied by his parents at Newhill, but he was so terribly mutilated that they could not recognise him, and, believing the body to be that of a stranger, they returned it to Rawmarsh. The young man had lodgings at Swinton, and to that place another body — that of a miner named Cooper — was taken, and the woman who lived at the house was under the impression for a long time that it was that of her lodger, Luke Oxley; but on Friday night she was at Rawmarsh, and there identified the body of Oxley by the clothes he wore. Accordingly his remains were conveyed to his lodgings at Swinton, from whence they were taken yesterday to West Melton. The other corpse lying at Swinton will probably be buried this afternoon.

The name of the deceased is Thomas Beighton, who at the time of the explosion was working in the pit near his brother. The latter, a boy about ten years old, was saved by his father, who found him lying on a roadway unconscious, and carried him into a purer atmosphere, at the imminent risk of his own life.

The Rev. John Levett, preaching at Swinton Church yesterday, referred at both services to the terrible in-roads made upon the lives of the miners by the explosion, and besought his hearers, not only to sympathise with the widows and orphans, but to turn their attention to spiritual things, the importance of which was made doubly apparent by the presence of the great calamity in their midst. A special prayer for the bereaved was said in the church.

Kilnhurst.

At Kilnhurst, where three of the deceased men lived, about three hundred persons assembled in the church-yard to witness the funeral. The fog was densely thick and the air bitterly cold, but notwithstanding that the people began to gather in the graveyard before three o’clock, the time fixed for the interments, and pertinaciously held their ground, although it was considerably after the hour fixed when the ceremony was commenced.

Two men — George King, a miner, who lived at Kilnhurst, and John Walker, a trammer, who lived in Pitt’s row, Kilnhurst — were to have been buried yesterday, and the third, Thomas Astill, a miner, who lived at Meadow Hall Works, near Kilnhurst, will be buried to-day.

King had only lately been married, and leaves a young widow, with no children. Walker was about twenty-one years of age, and was unmarried. Astill leaves a widow, but no children of his own. His widow has several, but they are all able to work. At two o’clock, neither of the coffins for the two men who were to have been buried yesterday had arrived, and it was thought that the bodies would have to remain unburied another day. King’s coffin, however, was taken to his house shortly before three o’clock, and his remains were removed to the church.

A short service was conducted by the Rev. H. T. Cordeaux, the incumbent of Kilnhurst, and a procession formed by the relatives of the deceased, who appeared to feel very keenly the loss they had sustained, and nearly the whole of the miners of the village. The crowd was very orderly, and a most reverential feeling appeared to impress the whole of them. When the ceremony was concluded, and the relatives had returned to their homes, the crowd quietly filed round the grave, and left the graveyard. King and Walker are stated to have been two of the quietest men in the village, and were universally respected. Expressions of sympathy have poured in from all sides upon their relatives, and a universal feeling of regret for their loss prevailed amongst their fellow- workmen.

At four o’clock the coffin in which Walker’s body was to be placed had not arrived, and it was then thought that he could not be interred until to-day. In the morning the Incumbent, theRF. Mr. Cordeaux, briefly mentioned the explosion; but in the evening he noticed the subject more fully. He preached from Ecclesiastes vii., 14, ” The day of adversity consider.” The rev. gentleman told with what startling suddenness the explosion had occurred, and showed the necessity for acting upon the words of his text. He asked the sympathy of his hearers for the unfortunate sufferers, and hoped that that sympathy would take a practical turn.

Walker had a brother who was employed in the same colliery, and worked in the same bank. On the morning of the accident he was unwell, and did not go to work, and thus saved his life. Had he gone to work he would have been close to the place where the explosion occurred. Another man who lives at Kilnhurst states that he was working within sixty yards of the place, and knew nothing about the explosion until some time afterwards, and in fact filled two corves before he was told of what had occurred.