Wigan Album

I worked at the Maypole Colliery from 1949, until I joined the R.A.F.on,30th, April, 1953. In April 1953, I was on the early day shift. On reaching the pit we were all told to assemble in the canteen. During the early hours of that morning, the cage at No2 pit, had been taken up through the headgears, instead of being lowered. Above the cage's supporting chains there was a mechanism called a butterfly. If this occurred the butterfly was supposed to go though a hole in a platform below the winding wheels, the butterfly was meant to slice through the winding rope, and then the butterfly should have opened ,and supported the cage on the other side of the hole, this didn't happen, the butterfly remained closed, and the cage plunged down the shaft. Fortually the cage was empty. The shaft was wrecked,and the back lash of the winding rope smashed in the front of the winding house, and the whole pit was unable to operate. I never went back, just over a couple of weeks later I was in the R.A.F.

Albert, was it an Ormerod detaching hook? Did the engine pull the rope out of the capping? You'll be aware of a similar incident at Plank Lane in the early '30's, where the detaching hook operated and clamped the ascending cage in the headgear, but the rope pulled out, and the other cage, loaded with miners, went into the sump. Only one survived.

What I remember about it Loz,was, that the cage was taken towards the headgears,instead of descending. This butterfly mechanism, as I was told by more experienced miners' than I was, was a safety measure, to prevent the cage being drawn up into the winding wheels. As it passed through the hole in the platform, the scissor movement closed, and should have opened on the other side of the hole,and suspend the cage, after the rope was disconnected. It may have been as you say Loz, another mechanism for detaching the winding rope from the cage, other than cutting through the rope. (As I was told at the time). I do know the safety mechanism, that was meant to suspend the cage, after the disconnection of the rope, failed to work. The cage went crashing down the pit, and as I commented, the the rope smashed in all the front of the winding house.