Facebook post #016 (May 2020)
This chapter of the tree has been long and difficult. My gt-gt Grandad moved to London, and I’ve now documented his mother’s family that he left behind in Barnsley. 37 coal miners and 3 others underground, a handful of labourers and mill and factory hands, and a coffin maker. One got 14 days’ hard labour for stealing a pigeon when he was 16. He was 5ft tall with red hair, knock-knees and a squint. One worked in the paper mill which was the backdrop for the film ‘Kes’. One died in an explosion at Wharncliffe Woodmoor colliery – the last major disaster in the South Yorkshire coalfield. One escaped to the Forest of Dean – where he was… a miner. One moved to Kent, where he was killed in a rock fall at Betteshanger Colliery, Deal. Five died in WWI, and one in WWII, where the explosions and the poison gas were deliberate.