Fife Accidents 1855 - 1870
This section contains newspaper reports on accidents in miscellaneous areas of Fife from 1855 to 1870 inclusive. Please check the indexes in the Accidents Section for reports by the Inspector of Mines and accidents in other areas.
8 November 1858
Dunfermline – Fatal Accident - A melancholy accident occurred on Monday forenoon at Wellwood Colliery - two boys, brothers named Sinclair, of the respective ages of ten and twelve years, were employed in filling a tub of coal at the bottom of a pit , when a large stone, supposed to be about four tons weight, fell from the roof. The eldest boy was killed on the spot, the stone falling right on his head and crushing him flat. The younger was struck by the edge of the stone and his leg fractured ; his recovery is extremely doubtful. [Scotsman 10 November 1858]
28 December 1859
Fatal Accident - On Wednesday, about 2 o'clock, four of the workmen engaged in the Balmule Pit were ascending it, when, for some unforeseen cause, a quantity of stones or other material, fell from one of the sides of the pit upon the unfortunate men, causing instantaneous death of two, and severely injuring the other two. The names of the men who thus met their death so unexpectedly are Nisbet and Lyle. The former leaves a wife and family to mourn his loss; the other was a young man, unmarried. The names of the survivors are Bewick and Allan; although the injuries they have sustained are of a serious nature, it is hoped they will soon recover, under the skilful attention of Dr Dewar, who was promptly on the spot to render all possible assistance. [Dunfermline Journal 30 December 1859]
20 April 1861
Fatal Accident - On Saturday morning an accident attended with a fatal result occurred at Townhill Colliery. A cage containing rails to be laid in the working s underground had been let down the shaft, which it was the duty of a man named Brookes to remove. He appears to have been attending to this duty but had neglected to make the necessary signal to the officials at the pit head. While partly in the cage, engaged in removing the rails, the engineman, ignorant of the state of matters, started the engine, and the cage began to ascend. Not being able to get out of the machine in time, the poor fellow was jammed between the side of the pit and the cage could not be got to move in the shaft. Communication having thus been cut off between the bottom and the pit head, the engineman remained for a considerable time ignorant of the poor fellow's; condition, and , if was not until a man had been let down by means of a rope, that his position was ascertained. He was found to be quite dead, .with his body fearfully mangled. [Scotsman 24 April 1861]
22 April 1861
Fatal Accident - The Dunfermline Press reports the following:- "On Monday forenoon, a young man, named Condie Chalmers Leitch, met his death near No. 18 Comrie Pit, the property of the Forth Iron Company. Shortly after breakfast, Condie had gone upon a locomotive, in charge of a brother, and that, when nearing the pit in question , it is supposed that he had gone down to uncouple the waggons when he fell and the waggons passed over his body before there was time to stop them. The unfortunate man was brought up as an engine driver, but during the last ten years he has been a sailor, only returning from sea a few months ago. After escaping the perils of the deep in India, Australia, and China , he has thus suddenly perished almost within hail of his father s house . Condie was about thirty years of age , and unmarried. [Scotsman 24 April 1861]
25 May 1861
Dunfermline – Fatal Accident At Townhill – A fatal accident occurred yesterday at No 6 pit, Townhill. A man named William Dow, a blacksmith, had been working about some point of the machinery while in motion, and had gone below the crank of the engine, which descended upon him, killing him on the spot. Dow has left a wife and two children to mourn his loss. [Scotsman 27 May 1861]
7 September 1861
Dunfermline – Fatal Colliery Accident – On Saturday, in one of the Fordel pits, a stone fell from the roof of the workings on two men, one of whom was killed, and the other seriously injured. [Scotsman 10 September 1861]
NB Deceased was Joseph Snaddon
15 February 1862
Dunfermline – Fatal Accident at Elgin Colliery - On Saturday, a man named Robert Thomson, a bottomer in Balmule Pit, Elgin colliery, was killed by falling down the shaft. The deceased wrought in the middle seam of the pit, and part of his duty was to keep a large lamp lighted at the mouth of the seam to enable himself to transfer the contents of the small hutches, used in the seam, into the hutch which carries them up the shaft. On this occasion he had neglected to light the lamp, and having rolled a hutch to the mouth of the seam when the larger hutch or cage, which should have been there to receive the contents, was ascending or had ascended the pit occupied by one of Thomson' s companions who had left him a minute before, the hutch fell down the pit , carrying the deceased along with it to the pit bottom, a distance of about forty fathoms. He was taken up shortly after quite dead. [Scotsman 18 February 1862]
7 February 1863
Horrible Accident At Fordell Colliery – A dreadful accident occurred on Saturday at Fordell Colliery near Dunfermline. A young woman was looking down one of the pits, when she lost her balance and fell in. From the depth of the pit shaft she must have been killed before she reached the bottom. Shortly after the accident a search was made and the body found literally smashed to fragments. On the remains being gathered together, it was found that part of one of the legs was amissing. It has not yet been recovered. [Hamilton Advertiser 14 February 1863]
25 November 1867
Dunfermline - Fatal Pit Accident - Serious accidents have occurred recently at some of the mines in this colliery district. This week another has happened which, unfortunately, has been attended with fatal results. On Monday, a lad named Archibald Cook, a miner, residing with his father at Crossgates, was working in the Netherbeath coal-pit, occupied by Henderson, Wallace, and Company, coal masters, and was engaged hewing a piece of coal at the face, when a stone, in weight about half a ton, fell on him from the roof of the pit. His head was crushed severely, and he sustained severe hurts in other parts of his body. He was conveyed home, where he was attended by Dr Bartholomew of Aberdour, but he died shortly after the occurrence. [Scotsman 28 November 1867]
17 March 1869
Coal Pit Accident – Yesterday, a miner named Peter Webster was severely injured in a coal pit at Lochfittie, near Dunfermline. He was working in the bottom of the pit when some heavy pieces of coal fell from the roof upon him, inflicting several dangerous wounds on the lower part of his body. He was also injured internally. He was conveyed to the Royal Infirmary. [Edinburgh Evening Courant 18 March 1869]