Dreadful Accident At Manc...
The Times, 1824-10-18T00:00:00

'Further particulars, from the Leeds Mercuryj.) Last W~ednesday mnorning, between nine and ten o'clock, the town of dlanchester was thrown into a state of great consternation. by a rumour, that a factory In Salford had falleni in and buried the 'work.people in the ruins. On repairing to the Spot, to which per. sonst flocked from every part at' the town, it wvas found that the secien of this; calamity was the mill of Alt. Nathan Goughi, in Salfiord, neatr Oldlleld-road, called " Islington-mill," an erection Rix stories high, thirteen yardls wide, and abouit three times that length, emn- ployed in the ispinning of cotton, and erected on thie fire-proot prin. ciple. Soon after the work-people had returned from their break- fasts and resuimed their bausine.s, &ne of the beams in the top story, of the building broke with a tremendous crash, and the arch of the floor giving wvay, to the exter,t of about eleven yards in length and six yards in width,feil with such fatal force as to'carry with it about the samne quantity of the otherifloors fromn the top to the bottom of the buildinig, huirrying down all the work-people in the line of Its de- structive couirse, anid burying those oni the ground floor under the accumulated weight of an immense mass, of Iron-beamns, machinery, and brick-work. The horror of thbe neighbourhiood it is impossible to describe. Trio huoedred andl fifty persons at least, consisting of men, women, and chiildren, Were ait work in the imill, ancti for same timle, the connexions of every one of them, extending to four tiRies that nttmber, were in a state of painiful apprehension bordering upon distraction. A mighty ruish took place from the miain outlet of the factory, and the welcome exclamation of "1 I am here anid safe," soundinig from a vast number otf tongues in the joyful ears of the in- quirers, as they arrived on the spot, seived to mingle joy with gtief, and to produce a scene of mnixed emotions scarcely to be conceived. Butitt~w all became gloom ; many ears were doomTedI never to hear the spirit-reviving sontin( of safety and security. The moans of the dying, and the cries of the maimed, some of them incerred to the middle. and others to the neck, in the massive materials by whichi thiey were held, thrilled through the hearts, and Yet nerved the arms of thegallant men whbo had ruished into the scene of'desolation, and were empiloyed at the liazard of their own lives in removing the ma- chnrati,d materials, Which formietda pile higher than the ceiling of th istfer, and under Which a nmbUer of bodies-how many, it was then im possible to say, were buried. Somne of those who hadl fallen fromn thze top story escaped unhurt; and oncof the boys who was in this situation, siaid the descent was as easy as riding in a coach ; btit as every fresh layer of ruibbish was removed, th fatal effects of thle accidcnt became miore sand more manifest ; and every indlividual itn the reLling-room, on the groundI floor. was a corpse. WVhenever any signs of life remained, the suifferer was carried ouat to the nleighbouring surgeons, and on the appearance of each fresh ob- ject a deep andI involuntakry expression of hIorror ran through the as- sembled mnultitudes, heighitened by the shrieks; of thiose who identi- fled in that object their chiild or their parent. In the course of the day the extenit of the mischief was ascertained, and the fhttal return amounted to 19 killed, andl about the same number bruised and mnaimned. Of the killed, 16 were femnales, andI three boys. The sufferers were principally young women, from 12 to 20 years of age, but there were three miarried women., andi one of themn in an adi- vanceti state of pregnancy. Seventeen of the deati bodies were de- posited in a shed in the rear of the builditig ; anti during the whole of the afternnon, the parents and connexions of the deceaed were passingin sucecession into tlhischarnel-house. to identify thecirrelatives, which,Iin man vyaseq,coutltbonly bedloneby theirfiress, thecountenanre being toe much disfigured by their bruises and suffe~rings to have left any traces of its original forsn. A more heart-rending scene we never witnessed. It wasa day of horrors ;never to beforgotten in theneigh. bouirhoo)d;lightened only by thiereflection, that thermischief might have been much more extensive, and that so large a prnportion of the sufferers had nio personis dlependent upon them for Support. It will be unkderstoodl, thtat only one compartment out of six of eachi of the five floors fell in, and that of course five-sixths of the floors in every room are still standing. T'le whole disaster is represented to have been only the work of' a mnoment, and yet a young man woringat is ate i th fith lor fom he roud,almost mira- culosly scapd th fat wit whih hewashreaene, by spigin a stte o horor ntialar, amuntng amos to nsesibility, while he iewd he uintht srrondd hm,an the gulf which opened benathlil fet, ndswalowd u hi less frtunate companionis. [From the Aranchuster Guardian.) Wh'en thoste persons whio were near the surface of the wreck had been extricated, a ntimiber of hands were procured, whio began to remove the rubbish with all possible despatch, in the hope of still finding some whio, thoug9h covered with the ruiRs, mig ht yet sur- vive. In this hope they were not entirely dlisappointedl. Two or three were found alive, though severely injured ; but thie great majority of those whio were dug out were quite dead. These amiount- ed to 16G on the grouind floor, which was. first cleared, and one, an elderly woman, on the top of the engim,ne-houise, which was examined afterwards. The search, though pro6ceeded in with great spirit and activity-, lasted fouar hours ; the last body being found about one o'clock. Duiring the whiole timie the factory was surrounded by an immense crowd, whto evirnced thie most livel y anxiety for the resul t and as each successive victim was found, anid borne away to an out- house in the yard, the strongest feelings of horror and commisera. tiots were manuifesitetl by- all the by-standers; whilst psirents, whose son or daugistcr was employed at the factory, and had neot yet been seen, fancied that every corpse which they heard of, or indistinctly s9aw, but were not then allowedl to apuroach, was that of thieir miss-ing relattive. M)any of these melancho'ly an- ticipations were, ef course, groundlless, the parties whom they sought being uniinjured, anti mixed with, the crowd whichl surrounded the building. AMany of them,i hiowever, were but teo well fournded. After all the TuWbbs had b'een rerm-oved, persons who mimsed relatires wiere adImitted into the yard ; and most distressing Scenes were ex- hibited, when these recogniized amnongst the mutilated and disfi. gured corpses, the remains of those whomi they had so anxiously sought. We were particularly struck with one old man, whose name we understood to be Kay He had a daughter, remiarktable for her stedy,Indstrou, ad eonoica hbits, who lhad saved (as we havebeeninfomed)fromher ages asa7eeler, upwards of 1001. Heaingof he almitus ccurene,hewent. to seek his dlaughter, andhe oun he a onge~ orpe. e never saw distress more foribl dpiced n he oucennceorin the gestures of a human After the bodies were all dug out, a detachment of the Scotch Gratys was obtained from the barracks, and wvas very serviceable in keeiing off the crowvds of people whiom curiosity hiad drawn to the spot, and wrho were far too numeroes to be controlled by the police. TPhe behaviour of the people was, however, so far as we observed it perfcctly ordterly and decorous, except when stimulated by a natural anxiety to see what was going on, they imade their way into the building and the yard in greater numbers than were consistent with the safety of the property, and the due progress of the operations whichi the accident had rendered necessary. After the arrival of the inilitary, the bidieswere all removed from the factory ledge, in which they 'were deposited when found (with the exception o1 that first discovered, whiceh was taken away by the friends of the deceased.) They were arranged in a stable in -he yard, in suich a maanner, that the faces of all might be exposed to vie'w, in order that such of them as had not Yet been claimed might be see by their elations: and we believe they were all idlentified in the course of the afteroocit. Their names, ages, residences, aind the roomsg in which they worked were as follows :- In room No. I (the ground floor)-.James Greaves, Dixon-sitreet, agedl 14; Richmall Greaves. aged 16, Sister to the above ; William AM'Kinzie, Rowell"'s.court, Bank Parade, ageti 11; Thomas Clarke, Hope-street. aged 13 ; Anti Kay, Oldfield-road, agedi 34. In room No. 2)-Susannals Hamilton, Gravel-lane, aged 18; Mlary Mlartin, Lombard.strcet, aged 16 ; Alice liallam, 5. Back Park-street, aged 30 ; Alary Ornmes, Irwin's-court, Oldfield..road, ageti 30, a stranger from Derby, no friends hlere ; Mary Anti Fors- ter, Davies.street, Brougliton-road, aged 14. In room- No. 3-Elizabeth WVilson, Silver-street, aged 35 ; Eliza- beth Smith, Mluslinet-court, Oldfield.road, 28 ; Jane Ashton, Scotlandl.bridge agd 55 Ellen A8sltton, 20 huer daughter ; C athie. rineSchcfield, in irsor-bridge, aged 11; l"rancisSmiith, Booth. street, aged 27 ; Elizabeth Jones, Union-street, aged 17, a stranger from liolywveU, no friends8here. in roomi No. 4-Betty Smith, Factory-line, aged 60: she was found on the top of the engine-house. WVithi regard to the number of persons wounded, we have not been able to procure any vecry satisfactory infermatiom ; but we have good reasotus forconcludinig that they are by, nomeanisso niumerous as they hav geeraly oonsaid to be- Probably they do not exceedt a dozen, incldingsomewhoe injuries are not of a vfery serious nature. The folowig re uchaswe hiave heard of.-- ~~~~~alaryDwia,ad Adary Hay, both aged 26 years, now ire the Geore Haes, ged18, turer,in the service of Air. Gouglh; at homenea th Safor poiceoffce,with a dreadful fracture of the skul, ad oter unjres. Ja escee age about 40, a mnechanic, in Oldfleld.road, severely bruisdbu tino bones broken. [The life of this man has been on.. usuall eventful. When a boy he was nearly drowned : afterwards he most narrowly escaped being burned to death : he was the only one of lour men who escaped from thie diving-boat which was exhi- bited a few years ago in Ancoats ; on this occasion one floor fell uipon him, as lie was at work in the fifth roo.m, and hie was precipi- tated, along with the floor on which he stood, into the fourthi, where he lodgedl on the t,op of thie engine-.house. 1 John Beck, a thin-late.worker, in the servic-e of AMr. Gough, who was at work in the fourth room, when the floor fell upon him. He received some severe injuries, but of whiat nature we have not learned. Hannahl Weaver, a girl about 14 vears of age, in Davies..str2et, Broughton-road, he'r thighi brokeni. - George Rawson, a ladi about 13 years of age, who wias doffing a thtrostle on the ground-floor when the ccienthapendHewsbrda considerable dlepth beneath the rins,and emaieu nderthem two hors anid a half dlost thig wa brken an hisleg seerey buise; bt h isexpcted THE INQUEST. On Thursday meriting aLn inquiry took place at the Angel Inn, Salford, befoare dir. Mi.r nan th-i1a n upon Lne occasion was James Henrv, a filer in the cotton-mill in question, whio stated that he had worked in the nill about six months; that he did not know how long the n-.ill had been built; that David Bellhouse's inen were at work, laying the floor, when he was there; that yester- day morning, about nine o'clock, he was at work in the fifth story of the said mill. That he was Koissg down stairs, and had got the sneck of the door of No. 6 room in his hand, when he heard the floor- ing of No.6 room give way. He did not stop to make any remarks, but got down stairs as quick as he could. There were three nmen and two boys, besides himself, at work in No. 6 ; that theother floors went to the bottom, and a general confusion took place. That if he must give his opinion, there was a deficiency in the building alto. gether; that the floors were arched, cast iron beams, and that the room was of wood; that in the cock-loft there was some cotton end a blowing-machine. That he had secn 17 dead bodies-men,women and children. That during the dinner-hour, last summer, he ane several others,who were eating thiir dinners, observed that thebuild. 8ug was not safe, as there waa a crevice in the front of the mill; but it was not, that he knows of, mentioned to the proprietor; that when he went to work, there was asettling in the mill, andthat there was a asace between the flags and themil.. John Taylor, overlooker In Nos. 2 and 3, in tl: said mill, stated -That at different times he had observed a settling in various parts of the mill, which hcmcstionedto Alr. Gough. but he (Air. Gough) did not consider it to be unsafe, conceiving it to be merely the settling of a new building. That he had seen several milLs; thei- mill (Mr. Gough's) was the xatne, with the exception of the columns. In moxt other mills there were two ros of columns; but In Mr. Gough's rru there was only one row; that had there been two Wws of columns, be could not say whether the acident would Nave hepened or not. Columns were ususlly plaeed to strengthen the buildin,s. Nathan Gough, iheproprietor of the mil in questiOn,e stated oat about two years ago David Belihouse 4nd Son bult the zbove mill. The founuation is four bricks in length, and then thic6. brick6 to the second story; then two and a half to the fourth se . and then two bricks up ta the roof. The mill is six stories liih- with bn ttic Goom intheroof. The roofisofwood,intheusaal ;74 withcast. iron beams to each floor, arched with bricks, and thoti Ags. The iron work was done by Bowman, Galloway, and Co. He always looked upon the building as safe. He believes the accdent arose from a flaw in the beam of No. 6 room. The beamsv were laid in the wall from nine inches to twelve inches. The beams, he believes, were all proved; the building was perfectly secure in all othier respects, except the said beam. He has seen some aettlings about the mill, but nothing more than what is usual in new buildingis. There might be about three tons weight of materials upon each beamr, the said beamn was faceat le on the exterior, and a workmian, to the best of his judgmnent, could not perceive any thing wrong. The jury then censulted for a short tine, nd found a verdict to the following efect :~ T"hat thle deceased persons were killed by thc accidental falling in of a portion of a cotton-nmill, in Salford, the property of Nlathan Goagh." * Not strictly the proprietor of the Mill-tbe machinery and works are Mr. Gough's but the mill belongs to James Bateman, Esq.: It wvas however-built ior Mr. Gough, and under his direction, by Mr. Ueii- liouse.-gditror. DREADPUtL ACCIDABVT AT MANCHESTER.