John Crook, b.1832
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Ralph Crook 1841-1881 John Crook 1832-1898 The Clifton Hall Colliery Disaster |
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John Crook, b.1832 |
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On Friday, 6th November 1885, John Crook, Manager of Agecroft Colliery, was presented with the Albert medal by the Mayor of Manchester at the Pendlebury Institute. This was in recognition of his bravery after the Clifton Hall Colliery explosion on 18th June of that year. At 9.30 a.m. on 18th June a violent explosion had ripped through the Trencherbone Seam of Lumbs Pit at Clifton Hall Colliery, near Pendlebury, Manchester. Finding that there was no safe escape route at Clifton, an appeal was made to the Agecroft Pit nearby so that survivors could escape by that route. John Crook organised the escape and, slowly, 116 survivors made their way to safety via three to four hundred yards of road flooded to a depth of two feet. |
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While the Crook family undoubtedly felt pride at John's award for bravery, the occasion was coloured with great sadness. In that same tragedy John's own brother Ralph and Ralph's son John had perished - suffocated by inhaling carbonic gas from the firedamp explosion. Ralph was 44 years old, leaving a wife and young children, and John was just 19. |
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LINK Here is a poignant account of a more recent mining disaster, illustrating very well the extremely high price sometimes paid by miners and their families. |
John's house at Agecroft Colliery |
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