Miners leaving the cage on the last day at Lingdale, 23rd February 1962. We asked if anyone could name the men in the photograph. Bill Danby tells us: ”My brother in law, Frank Holmes, who was an Underground Deputy at Lingdale mine for a long time says that man at the rear is “Tibber” Slater, who used to live just below him in Scarth Street, Lingdale. Frank cannot presently recall the surname of the man at the front, but his Christian name was Jim. Frank recalls that Jim’s best mate was a man called Alan Forbes, who was involved in the worst pit accident that Frank ever experienced. That is saying something, as Frank was down Lingdale mine at the time of the gas explosion on the 25th August 1953 which killed 7 men and injured others. On the 28th August 1961, when Alan was aged 45, a piece of stone, “the size of a bus”, Frank says, fell on him from the pit roof. Miners had to stand on top of it to break it up and get to the dead man. Jim never went down any mine again after that. So from that story and in Frank’s opinion, it would seem that the photograph was not taken on the last day at the mine.”
Image courtesy of George Pearson and thanks to Bill Daby for those updates.
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