1. Life

Baptism

Joseph Pickard was baptised at Kippax on 26 October 1812, son of John Pickard. The extracted Church of England parish record names the father and no mother. The burial age of 42 in January 1855 fits that baptism: he would have turned 43 in October 1855.

Marriage

On 12 November 1837, at the parish church of Kippax, entry no. 251, Joseph Pickard of this parish married Sarah Fawcett of this parish, by banns. Both made their marks. Witnesses Joseph Hill and Harriet Pickard (Harriet also made her mark). The vicar signed A. Heart. West Yorkshire Archive Service P47/17, pages 84–85.

A published parish index gives Sarah Fawcett’s baptism as 2 January 1820 at Kippax, daughter of Benjamin Fawcett and Zilpha. That identification is consistent with the marriage, but the 1837 register does not name her father.

Census

The 1851 census schedules for this household were not among the documents supplied. A published index of that census places Sarah Pickard in the household of Joseph Pickard in the West Riding. The same indexes place a Sarah Pickard at Kippax in 1861 and 1871, after Joseph’s death. Those later entries have not been seen as images and are not used here for children’s names. No occupation for Joseph appears on the burial or the inspector’s abstract.

Death and burial

He was killed on Saturday 13 January 1855 and buried on Monday 15 January 1855 at St Mary’s, Kippax, entry no. 137: Joseph Pickard, abode Kippax, age 42, E. D. Bland, Vicar. West Yorkshire Archive Service P47/26. The Durham Mining Museum still prints the burial as not known.

2. The accident

On 13 January 1855 the winding rope broke at Kippax Colliery, Locke and Co. Two men were killed: Joseph Pickard and Robert Biscomb.

Charles Morton, H.M. Inspector of Mines, entered the case as accident no. 53 on page 72 of his report for January–June 1855. The Durham Mining Museum abstract taken from that report reads: Joseph Pickard; died 13 January 1855; accident 13 January 1855; colliery Kippax; company Locke and Co.; notes: breaking of a pit rope. The companion entry for Robert Biscomb carries the same cause and the same date.

A broken pit rope is a shaft accident. Men were in the cage, or the cage fell, when the rope parted. The open abstract does not say how far the cage fell, whether a detaching hook was fitted (they were not yet general), or what job either man was doing.

This was not the later Owl Wood sinking. Locke and Co. were already working coal at Kippax in 1855. The deep Haigh Moor shaft near Owl Wood is dated 1858 in local accounts. The 1855 pit was one of the shallower workings then standing in the township.

3. Coroner, newspaper and conclusion

No inquest transcript and no newspaper paragraph naming Joseph Pickard in January 1855 have been found in the open indexes searched for this note. A double death in the shaft would normally have gone before the Pontefract coroner.

Official conclusion, from the inspector’s table: accidental death, breaking of a pit rope, Locke and Co., Kippax, 13 January 1855. Two killed.

4. Sources and citations

Kippax baptism, 26 October 1812: Joseph Pickard, son of John Pickard. Yorkshire extracted Church of England parish records.

West Yorkshire Archive Service: Kippax marriage register, 12 November 1837, no. 251 (P47/17). Joseph Pickard and Sarah Fawcett, both of this parish, by banns; marks; witnesses Joseph Hill and Harriet Pickard.

West Yorkshire Archive Service: Kippax burial register, 1855, no. 137 (P47/26). Joseph Pickard, Kippax, 15 January 1855, age 42; E. D. Bland.

Charles Morton, Mines Inspectors Report, January–June 1855, p. 72, accident no. 53.

Durham Mining Museum: Joseph Pickard, died 13 January 1855, Kippax, Locke and Co., breaking of a pit rope; and the disaster page for the same date, two lives, with Robert Biscomb.

UK Coal Mining Accidents index and Alan Beales’s Mining Disaster Victims: Joseph Pickard, 13 January 1855, cause given as bursting of an underground boiler. These two commercial lines are not followed. See corrections.

5. Corrections

Cause. The commercial indexes say “bursting of an underground boiler, 2 killed.” Morton’s table, as abstracted by the Durham Mining Museum, says breaking of a pit rope, and names the same two men. The inspector’s classification is preferred.

Place. Pontefract in the commercial index is the registration and coroner’s district. The colliery and the grave are Kippax.

Age. Burial 42. Baptism 26 October 1812. The two agree. The inspector’s abstract gives no age.

Burial. DMM “not known” is filled by Kippax no. 137, 15 January 1855, two days after the accident.

Companion. Robert Biscomb died in the same rope failure. He is not to be folded into a boiler story.