1. Life

The official tables give only an initial. J. Rhodes was about 54 when he was killed, which puts his birth about 1837 or 1838. He was a screener at Locke and Co.’s Kippax Colliery. A screener worked on the surface, at the screens that sized the coal as it came from the shaft, with railway waggons standing under or beside those screens.

Rhodes is a common Kippax surname. The 1871 heads of household alone include Riley, Joseph, Henry, William and James Rhodes. John Pickersgill of this series married Ann Rhodes of Castleford in 1865. None of those lines can be tied to this death without a first name, a burial entry or a death certificate. DMM still prints the burial as not known. No 1891 census household has been matched.

What can be said is the work. He was on the seventh hour of the shift when he was killed, at 12.25 in the afternoon. That is a day-shift screener, not a night banksman.

2. The accident

Thursday 14 January 1892, 12.25 p.m., seventh hour of the shift, Kippax Colliery surface, Locke and Co. J. Rhodes, screener, aged 54, was crushed by waggons.

Frank N. Wardell, inspector for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (District No. 5), entered the case as accident no. 3 on page 27 of his 1892 report, Command Paper C. 6986. The Durham Mining Museum abstract taken from that report is the source of the hour and the shift number. The printed table does not add whether a waggon was being lowered under the screens, whether a sprag failed, or whether he was coupling.

The same class of accident killed John Pickersgill, screenman, at the same company’s Kippax screens on 13 November 1877. Surface waggon roads at the screens were a standing danger.

The commercial index places the accident at Leeds. Leeds is the nearest city. The colliery is Kippax.

3. Coroner, newspaper and conclusion

No inquest transcript and no newspaper paragraph naming J. Rhodes of Kippax in January 1892 have been found in the open indexes searched for this note. Surface deaths at Kippax were normally taken by the Pontefract or Tadcaster coroner.

Official conclusion: accidental death, crushed by waggons on the surface, screener, Locke and Co., Kippax, 14 January 1892, 12.25 p.m.

4. Sources and citations

Frank N. Wardell, 1892 Mines Inspectors Report (C. 6986), Yorkshire and Lincolnshire District (No. 5), p. 27, accident no. 3.

Durham Mining Museum: J. Rhodes, age 54, born about 1838, died 14 January 1892, accident 14 January 1892 at 12.25 p.m., seventh hour of shift, Kippax, Locke and Co., screener, crushed by waggons.

UK Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths Index, 1878–1951: J. Rhodes, age 54, born about 1838, 14 January 1892, Leeds, Locke and Co., screener, crushed by waggons.

5. Corrections

Place. Leeds in the commercial index is the nearest city. The pit is Kippax.

Surface, not underground. Screener plus waggons is a screen-road accident, the same class as John Pickersgill in 1877.

Identity. Do not attach a particular Kippax Rhodes household until a first name, burial or GRO certificate is produced. The inspector recorded only J.

Burial. Still not known. A Kippax or Allerton Bywater register search for mid-January 1892, age about 54, would settle it.

A GRO certificate from Tadcaster or Pontefract, January–March 1892, Rhodes, age 54, would give the first name and the informant.

Mick