At 4 am In early August 1871 a married pit man called James Robinson was found cut in two on the railway line about a quarter of a mile from Durham railway station. He was a lodger at Sleetburn at the time.
In 1877 a small boy called Hutchinson was admitted to Durham County Hospital having been run over on the railway line at Sleetburn Colliery. I am not sure of his fate.
In May 1885 the body of a newly born child was found at Sleetburn by some children.
Something less serious - In 1887 the Durham County rugby authorities expelled Sleetburn Old Boys Club from the Union because some players and spectators had attacked the referee during the semi-final of the Durham Junior Cup at Sleetburn. Rugby at Sleetburn?
Mind you Ushaw Moor had its problems as well - Tommy Doyle, last seen [perfectly sober] at 10.30 pm in early May 1883, was found dead the following morning at the bottom of Ushaw Moor Colliery pit shaft.
WB
Hi Wilf,
ReplyDeletePerhaps I can cast some light on the fate of the little boy named Hutchinson who was injured on the railway in 1877. Some time ago I mentioned the two watchmen on the buildings sites as the housing was built in the late 40s and early 50s. Victoria, Whitehouse and Bracken Courts and the Oakridge road area. One of the watchmen was a Mr Hutchinson who lived at Pringle Place. He was an extremely smart man in his dress and he was very straight-backed and only had one arm He was a friend of my Dad and I was always under the impression that Mr Hutchinson had lost his arm during the First World War. Some time later his grandson posted that his granddad had been run over on the railway at Sleetburn when he was a boy and lost his arm and not as I thought in the First World War.
Brian Mc.