A preliminary report being prepared by The Phoenix Trust indicates that building a marina on the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove could give the town a heritage based tourist industry which would play a leading role in its regeneration.
The report says: “Kidsgrove already has the basis of a major tourist industry which would attract visitors from home and overseas.
“Its main attractions are:
the Harecastle Tunnels and the Trent & Mersey Canal which merit World Heritage Site status in their own right
Mow Cop’s links with Primitive Methodism
St. Saviour’s ‘the historic tin church’ in The Rookery
James Brindley’s grave at Newchapel, and
Reginald Mitchell’s birthplace in Butt Lane.”
Each former mining community in the district retains its original character and architectural heritage which would attract both the casual visitor as well as the professional historian.
Many of the former railways and tramways which have become walkways and footpaths could easily be transformed into heritage trails.
Bath Pool has the potential to become a major tourist attraction and the playing fields at Birchenwood Country Park could become a regional centre for a wide range of sporting activities.
Focus on Kidsgrove is a new series which we will be posting on this website.
Written by historical geographer Betty Cooper and international heritage lawyer David Martin, the series will cover the social, economic and administrative history of Kidsgrove, Butt Lane, Harriseahead, Mow Cop, Newchapel and Talke.
The area is rich in history.
Mow Cop is the birth place of Primitive Methodism and St. Saviour’s, the redundant Church of England mission church in The Rookery, is one of the oldest “tin churches” in the world.
The Trent & Mersey Canal kick started the Industrial Revolution that made Britain the Workshop of the World. The two tunnels which take the canal through Harecastle Hill are magnificent feats of civil engineering that merit World Heritage Site status in their own right.
Starting at the end of January, our new series will introduce you to Kidsgrove’s:
legal/administrative history from the medieval Court Leet to the modern town council
coal and ironstone mines and the men women and children who worked in them
light engineering, chemical and computer industries
schools, churches and chapels
roads, railways and canals
heritage buildings.
Photograph Copyright David Martin – The Phoenix Trust 2012
The Coal Mines Act 1911 forced colliery owners to employ qualified safety officers, called firemen to inspect roadways leading to the coalface and make sure the pit was well ventilated and free from gas. It was an important job. A miner could not become a fireman unless he had obtained a Firemans Certificate, was at least 25 years old and had worked underground for three years before working at the coalface for two.
In the early 1920s, Harry Wilson, a roadman at Harriseahead Colliery, was a part-time student at the North Staffordshire Technical College (Staffordshire University) where he was studying for his fireman’s certificate.
On March 10th, 1924, Harry was at work when the lower levels of the colliery were flooded by a sudden inrush of water. With the exception of Edwin Booth, who was trapped by flood water about 300 yards (274 metres) from the bottom of the shaft, all the men working underground escaped. Many made their way along roadways where the water was four feet deep to the bottom of the shaft and were brought up in the cage while others climbed a footrail to reach the surface.
When he realised Edwin was missing Pailing Baker, the manager, called for volunteers to help rescue him. Five men, including Harry, volunteered. Led by Pailing, they entered the mine through the footrail. Making their way along a roadway, the volunteers reached a ventilation door that was holding back the flood water. Fearing for their lives, four of the men refused to open it. They returned to the surface while Pailing and Harry stayed in the tunnel.
The two men slowly opened the door and the water behind it fell slightly. Realising they could be drowned by water which was still pouring into the workings, Pailing and Harry risked their lives by wading in semi-darkness, through swirling flood water, along a low roofed, narrow roadway to where Edwin was trapped. Struggling against chest high, fast flowing water, they again risked death to guide him to the bottom of the shaft where a cage took them to the surface.
Six months later, on August 23rd, 1924, Buckingham Palace announced that King George V had awarded Pailing and Harry the Edward Medal for “exceptional courage and resolution”. Before going to London to receive their medals from the King, they were honoured locally. At a ceremony in the Victoria Hall, Kidsgrove, they were presented with certificates acknowledging their bravery by the Daily Herald, a popular national newspaper, and the Carnegie Trust, which also announced that it had agreed to pay all Harry’s tuition fees at the North Staffordshire Technical College giving him the opportunity to continue his studies there and become a mining engineer.
Instituted by King Edward VII in 1907, the Edward Medal was the equivalent of the Victoria Cross. Designed by W Reynolds-Stephens, the medal had the sovereign’s profile on the obverse, while the reverse which depicted a miner rescuing a stricken colleague, was inscribed with the words “For Courage”.
During the Battle of Britain in 1940, King George VI instituted the George Cross “for acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger”. The George Cross gradually replaced the Edward Medal which was only awarded posthumously after 1949. During 1971, the Queen invited the 68 surviving holders of the Edward Medal to exchange it for the George Cross. Harry accepted the invitation and until his death in 1986 he regularly attended the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association’s reunions at Buckingham Palace.
Tell us about other miners who were given awards for risking their lives to rescue a comrade trapped underground.
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