Mexborough and Swinton Times March 2, 1928

More Memories of Lundhill

Widow Who Worked Down The Mine

In the “Mexborough Times” recent references to survivors of the Lundhill explosion of stimulating further reminiscences, this time from an old lady who lives at Goldthorpe.

Mrs Mary Hutchinson, of 17, Nora Street, was near the pit head on the fatal day and saw the shaft belch forth flames.

Mrs Hutchinson will be 78 in October so at the time of the explosion she was a child of six. Her father Richard Wilkinson and her uncle Tom Wilkinson, were in the mine at the time, and were among the hundred who perished. Their charred bodies were not recovered until May, and they were then buried with the rest at Darfield.

Mrs Hutchinson has quite a vivid recollection of the disaster. Her home overlooked the colliery yard, and at the time she was playing with two brothers in the backyard, and was being trundled in a box on wheels, when suddenly they were all startled by a bang, and looking up saw flames coming out of the pit shaft. She rushed into the house, and. said, “Oh, mother, look what a big blaze!” Her mother ran out of the house, end her screams roused the neighbourhood. Everybody rushed to the pit vard, and there saw indescribable scenes.

The Wilkinson family had come to Lundhill from Wordboro’ Dale, and after the explosion Mrs Wilkinson took her eight children to Wigan, and there the poor woman actually worked down the pit to support her family.

Mrs. Hutchinson is the widow of William Fergus Hutchinson, who died in January. 1913, and who was a member of a family of footballers quite celebrated in their day.

She has three surviving son and two daughters, one son in America and a daughter in New Zealand