The Express.
London, England, 1850-08-01 00:00:00

THZ
MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS.

THE FALL OF A COTTON MILL AT
STOCKPORT.

The following is a mere minute account of this
shecking and fatal calamity than could Delimited up in time
for yesterday's publication.
MANCHESTER, JULY 31.
On Tuesday afternoon, between one and two tecloos, a
large por:ioa of a new mill at Stockport fell soddenly to the
Remind, and muted the death, we r.gret to say, of several of
the heads employed about it. It is as yet impossible to say
how many, but probebly 10 or 11. The mid in question,
which is called the Brioksway Lill, is the property of Mr.
Cepbas Howard. It u a sew fire.proof mill, having been
commenced in Auenst last, and having hese only occupies'
abut a month by )dr. Joseph Heaword. It is a rather hand-
.

some erection, eind the Walls are apparently substentiel
enough. It is 47 yards losg and 20 wide, and is four stonys
in height, the bottom one being the doubling to. ns, the se-
coed tor tbrostle sunning, the third for cardiug,and the north
for blowing. Teemed was of rather peculiar eonatzuetioa,
being intended to be worked not only by • steam engine,
bet also partly by an undershot water wheel, which was is
course et' omastruction at the time of the accident. The
walls of the mill rested upon the solid reek, and down the
centre of the mill ran a row of iron ribbed pillar, 26 feet
leg, 14 inches diameter in the centre, tapering to 8 inches
diameter at each en 4 : upon the heads et them pillars the
11 miring beam*, from which sprung the fire-preef arches over
the first floor, sprang. With one exception, these upright
pillars wen 10 feet apart from each other; but one pillar
was intermitted (where the second from the west end of the
mill should bare stood), in order to allow room for the
want wheal being placed directly under the mill. This wheel
wee to have been 20 feet in diameter, and to have been
supplied with water by an arched tunnel running ruder
the first Mew of the mill, to within 40 feet of the west
gable. At 40 feet from that gable ire first floor ceased,
the space oompied by et being for that diatom* taken up by
the waterwheel and gearing ; or rather about two-thirds of
the area of the mill was so taken up for that length. fu
there was a lower flour germs the other third, on the north
side of the slid, where some gearing was to have been Woo. d
to connect the wa:er.wheel with the steam engine; cud this
portion of the flooring wan supported by • wall running
Iw.gitudivally parallel to the outer wall, and did not at all
depend for support upon the beams in the centre of the mill.
We have stated already that the beams down the centre of
the mill, and supporting the Aces, were, with one except:or,
placed at a distance of 10 feet from each other, and that In
that tingle instance there was a distance of 20 feet. New, in
order to support the intermediate Meting, a large and heavy
iron flange beam, with an arched top, 3 feet 4 inches
deep in the centre, was carried 1 ingitudinally down the mill,
and was supported upon the heads of the two a rrrrr t pillars ;
aid to the centre of this beam, the flooring beams for the
cuter walls of the building were carried ; the ends of the crow
berme were supported upon strong boxes, and their ends
were moreover strongly bolted to the longitudinal beam. Of
course, the nature of the construction of this loam is of the
utmost importance is determining the cause of the accident
e Bich, it will be seen, occurre d jut at this point ci the
mill), but this we were not enabled to ascertain, for at the
time that we viaited it yesterday afternoon this beam was
still tovered with rubbi,h. We were also not able to ascer-
tain whether the upright pillars supportiag the longitudinal
beam were of any greater strength than the remainder of
the pillars, which were obviously net aubjee:ed to anything
like the strain of the two Is question. Our impression is
that they were not.
The above are such particulars as •ei the construction of the
mill as we were able to collect during a necessarily hasty
visit yesterday afternoon. Tre accident took place yesterday
afternoon, as we have already stated, between one and two
o'clock. At that hour the whole of the interior portion of
the mill, from thre point where the first floor ceased, except
that portion of it which, as we have stated, was supported by
the longitudinal wall—that is, the whole or the bundle:lg
which depended upon the longitudinel beam and its support-
ing pillars—fall suddenly, and without any previous warning,
to the ground, with a fearful crash, burying several persons
under the ruins. Altogether, about one sixth part of the
mill has fallen to the grouted. Fortunately, the mill hands
were almost all at dinner at the time, or the consequences to
lite mint bate been dreadful. As it was, there were only a
few female., a boy, and • man, who bad remained to eat
their dinners at the mill, ai tar ea we an learn, in the
part of the budding which fell. John Marsh, a machine
mitre, was one of them. He was in the third story, and
ho statue that the first thing that &armed him was see-
ing the hackwork tall from the fireproof arches of the
room; that he immediately ran to the other end of the
mill, and thus escaped, the building crashing down behind
him as he went. Of the women who were in the mill at
the time, none wholly ramped ; but three were imme-
diately afterwards rescued from the ruins :—REssbetb
and Ann, daughters of Richard Salt, butcher, Portwood;
who were on the first-floor of the mill when the accident
happened, and were not seriously injured, and Ellen
Ashton, who fell three storeys ; she was taken out of the
ruins dreadfully iejured, and though every attention was
rendered to her at the Stockport Infirmary, she expired
in about two hosts. The boy to whom we have alluded,
and who was in the lower room, woe also earned down
amorist the ruins, and when found he bad • severe flash
wound on his thigh ; but this, it is hoped, will not peeve
serious. Four other women hays not been sere sines he
accident, and it is supposed that they must have been in
the mill at the time, and that their bodies most still (at
the time we write) be buried under the reins. These are
Margaret Harding (Cagle woman), of New Bridge-lane ;
Ann Swindells, • married woman with four children{
Elizabeth Sylve_, • girl 14 or 16 yeses old ; and another girl,
named Cash. But besides these there were workpeopke—
millwrights and their labourers—engaged in putting up the
new water wheel at the time of the accident. Of diem
Ephraim Kidson, Wright Barker and John Stubby (mill-
wrights), and Jame Robinson, Joseph Orme, and Samuel
Harrop (labourers), were knewn to have been engaged under
the part of the mill which has fallen at the time of the
accident ; the fear first about the wheel, and the two last
near the west gable wall, throwing rubbish into the weir. As
none of these men have been seen sine* the accident, they
also, we fear, must be assumed to be buried under the neb-
bish. This would give eleven lives lost, as follows:—Ellen
Ashton, Margaret Harding, Ann Swindells, BIM shah Sykes,
Cash, Ephraim Kidson, Wright Barker, John Hubby,
James Robinson, Joseph Orme, Samuel
Since the above was written the remort7the ruins has
commenced, and three bodies, those of this wheelwrights, had
been pc out yesterday morning. The inquest was fixed for
last (Wednesday) evening, but as the whole of the bodies
had not been recovered, it would necessarily be adjourned.

THE CASE OF BIGAMY AND MURDER AT EDlN-
suiton.—Tbe Dean Banning, who was found guilty, at the
High Court of Justiciary, on Friday last, of the double
crimes of bigamy and murder, and senteneed to be executed
on the 16th of August. confessed on Monday that he had
poisoned his wife on the Friday cumin that she was alleged
to hate become ill. The confusion is not la each a com-
plete state as would lestlfy its publication ; bat a copy has
been transmitted to Bir G. Gray, the ascreesry of State for
the Home Department. Bennieoa mane that en the Friday
inning ha made the porridge, and put a quantity of arsenic
in it. His Child harlot; previously goal to bed, and Ben-
t/non having, on the score of illness. mused himself from
satin melds' that night, his wife was the only ono that
partook of the porridge, and to that her death is to be
moribed. He states that tbe girl Robertson had net the most
remote idea that he had any %tenet ia her seeps that eta
religious kind, and that he never spoke to her salads is
respect to her spiritual welfare. His bar made no boatmen%
with regard to the ant wife's sadden death at Airdrie; but,
as it is singly suspected that he admialstsred patios to get
quit of her. it is sot improbable that we may hare a farther
weateeetoa from him to that amt.