Lodge Colliery, Malinslee, Dawley

Owner Mr. Botfield

1890 Map

Eddowes's Journal, and General Advertiser for Shropshire, and the Principality of Wales – Wednesday 29 March 1848

Fatal Coal-Pit Accident. – Eight Men Killed. – On Wednesday morning last, an accident took place at a coal-pit at Malinslee, called “the Lodge” of which George Jones and John Phillips were charter- masters, which resulted in the death of eight men, viz George Jones, chartermaster, and Robert Carter, John Ellis, Joseph Holmes, Joseph Pemberton, Noah Bailey, Edward jones, and George Hoof, colliers. The pit was worked by a steam-engine, and was 175 yards deep. About half-past five o’clock these unfortunate men were descending the pit for the purpose of going to work, when about 40 or 50 yards down, the pins which held the main shaft broke, and the poor fellows fell to the bottom, and the chain rope, about two tons weight, getting off the barrel, fell on them. Two men, named Tart and Bailey, were in about twenty minutes after the accident lowered down the pit by a rope, and found them all smashed together at the bottom. Carter, Ellis, and Edward Jones were alive, but died soon after they were removed; all the others were quite dead; Carter was the only man who could speak; he told Tart that he should be a dead man, as his legs, thighs, and back were broken. He said they came down very quietly until the chain run. – An Inquest was held on Friday, the 24th just, on the body of George Jones, the chartermaster, before J. Dicken. Esq. at the Elephant and Castle Inn, Dawley Green, when, after a long and protracted Enquiry, the Jury returned a verdict that the deceased came by his death in consequence of the breaking of the iron pins holding down the main shaft, by which the band fell to the bottom, and the rope chain falling on the deceased producing concussion of the brain, and divers fractures of the limbs of his body, by which he died; and the Jury also pronounced the said iron pins, the breakage of which was the cause of the accident, to have been made of bad iron. The pit is one of Mr. Botfield’s. and the verdicts were in accordance with the above. Some of the men have left large families to mourn their untimely end.

Eddowes's Journal, and General Advertiser for Shropshire, and the Principality of Wales - Wednesday 05 April 1848

Malinslee. – The melancholy accident that occurred at Lodge Pits, Malinslee, was purely accidental, and no blame could be attached to any one. The engine was bought from the late Mr. Hazledine, of Bridgnorth, many years since, has been regularly at work, and was in good repair. The iron pronounced bad by the jury has since been put to severe trials by three experienced smiths, and proves to be very good, samples of which are preserved by the manager.