| William
was sent to join the Harvey road party making extensive repairs to
fourteen miles of road. The district was very swampy and the road
required raising in places. They also has to cut several miles of drain,
installing several large culverts along the system. The Scotsman,
Jamieson had been sent to join this working party so William just kept
himself at a safe distance from him. Or so he thought. The last thing he
wanted was any trouble, but he had been told by one of the other
prisoners that Jamieson had been bragging about injuring Teale and that
Sykes was going to get some of the same. William hated this state of
affairs. He wasn’t afraid of Jamieson, but he was a big man and could
do a lot of damage if he attacked unexpectedly. William continually
watched over his shoulder for any signs. A week went by and nothing had
happened. Perhaps it had just been all talk by the big Scotsman. Still,
he would continue to be wary and on his guard. Road repairs relied on supplies which came by horse drawn carts. Limestone for the road surface had to be transported from the quarries to the repair sites. The large culverts were lined with limestone slabs each weighing about three tons, these also having been hewn from the limestone quarry just outside Bunbury. These were lifted by pulley block systems mounted on large wooden frames from the wagon and into position in the culvert. It was a difficult and dangerous job requiring great care. William was entrusted with manouvering these slabs into position and stood just to the rear of the wagon. It was raining heavily. The large white slab of stone, with heavy ropes attached, was in the process of being lifted from the cart. A team of three men were hauling on the rope and gradually the large slab lifted off the wagon. Another two men steadied the horses to keep the wagon steady and blocks had been placed under the wheels to hold it in position. As the men strained on the rope, William noticed Jamieson close by. As the block of stone lifted off the wagon he knew he would have to stand almost directly below it to steady it. William looked up, the rain was beating into his face. One of the men called, “It’s coming off now.” As the full weight was taken, there was a loud crack. One of the lifting ropes had snapped its loose ends flying up into the air. The huge block of stone began to drop causing the other securing ropes to stretch and snap under the strain, catching the edge of the wagon on which it had been standing and which was now lurching forward as the horses startled by the loud report tried to push forward against the two men trying to steady them. William turned and leapt into the drain at the side of the road rolling down the embankment. He looked back to the wagon as it began to tip over with the excessive weight of the slab on its edge. Jamieson had been stood by the wagon and was knocked sideways as the wagon heeled over towards him. The large slab dropped to the floor on its end and stood there for a few seconds like a giant tombstone and then began it to fall on its side towards the Scotsman. William screamed to Jamieson, “Get out of the way.” Jamieson was on his hands and knees as the big slab fell on him and pinned him to the floor squeezing the life out of him. William ran up the banking and started to try and lift the stone. He could see blood coming from Jamieson’s mouth and he heard him groan. “Help me get this bloody thing off him,” he screamed. Several of the men crowded around the rock and tried to lift it but it was too heavy. “Get some more rope on it and lift it,” someone shouted. It only needed lifting a few inches to get Jamieson out from under the rock. It seemed an age, but it took no more than a couple of minutes to lift the slab lifted high enough to extricate the trapped man. He was eased out carefully. He made no sound as his limp body was pulled from beneath the slab, for Jamieson had been crushed to death. The convict Constable was immediately sent back to Bunbury to inform the police and report the incident and consequent death of Jamieson. It was late afternoon when he returned with two constables and a coffin. Nothing had been touched other than Jamieson’s body had been wrapped in a blanket and placed in one the huts. It had stopped raining although the sky was black and there was a promise of another downpour before long. One of the constables at first went over to the temporary mortuary to view the body. He then examined the scene of the accident and started to make notes and draw sketches of the equipment in the area around where the incident had taken place. Statements were taken from each of the men engaged in the activity by the other constable, each of them describing the events leading to Jamieson’s death. They all, without exception, remarked on the noise made by the breaking rope just prior to the large stone falling. The constable examining the equipment called his partner over to show him one of the ropes still attached to the slab. William knew what they were examining. He had noticed that the thick sisal rope which had snapped had been cut halfway through with a sharp instrument, probably a knife. It had been deliberately weakened in order for it to snap when the full weight was applied. It could only have been done by Jamieson himself trying to gain his revenge in the hope that William would be the one injured by the falling stone. It had brought about his own terrible death. When William was interviewed he only described what he had seen and heard, never mentioning the rope. He would leave it to the police and the Coroner to decide who or what was to blame. Jamieson would never bother him again. Jamieson’s body was conveyed back to Bunbury for examination. A week later, the Coroner’s court came to the conclusion, after hearing the evidence of the two constables, that Jamieson’s death had been the result of an accident caused by a frayed rope breaking. It was recommended that, in order to prevent future accidents of this nature, the use of chains would be preferable for lifting the large blocks of limestone. After this incident, William had written again to his sisters, without mentioning Frederick, and was surprised to receive a reply from Myra, albeit a year later, chiding him for not writing to her. Greasbrough
4th November 1869 Dear
Husband, I take this opportunity of writing you these few lines to let
you know that me and all the children are all well, hoping that when you
receive this letter you will be in good health as this leaves us all at
present, thank God for his kindness to us all. Dear Husband, it has been
three weeks since I heard that there was a letter came to your sister
and I went to the post office to see whether it was right or not. I
found out that there had been one but I have never seen it yet. Ann went
to see whether her Aunt Rebecca would let her see the letter but she
would not let either me or her see it so the children have taken it
greatly to heart. They are never done speaking about it and they never
gave me any peace since. I have been waiting with the greatest of
patience till they had all seen your letter that I might know how to
write to you but they will not give it up so the children would have me
write to you without seeing your letter. Ann is the worst of all and she
is bothered greatly about it every day in her life. She is serving for
all your old friends in Greasbrough. They are wanting to know how you
are getting on. But dear Husband, I cannot tell what it is they have all
got against me for I have never yet bothered them for nothing since you
left us all. But dear Husband I have worked hard for my children and
myself since you went. I have done my uttermost to bring them up as well
as any other person’s children about the place and I have done so yet,
thank God. We are living in Greasbrough and Alf is working in the pit,
Ann is placed and Thirza and William are going to the school and by the
time I get a letter from you I hope Thirza will be able to write to you.
Dear Husband, my brother Alfred is always ill. The same as my brother
Manuel was before he died and he sends his kind love to you and all our
family does the same. I had my brother, Ellis and his son lodging with
me for some time but they have gone back to Barnsley. The work was slack
there but it is much better now. William
couldn’t understand. Everyone seemed to be named in the letter except
Frederick. The knowledge began to gnaw at him again, jealously biting
into his heart. She had probably taken in a lodger and having been
unfaithful, borne his child and decided never to tell him and keep this
dark secret to herself. 9th
March As
William read this letter his eyes filled with tears. He could feel the
pain that his dear wife was conveying to him in this letter. Life was
passing quickly and he was missing her and his growing family. He was
now a grandfather of two. He wished she had told him whether they were
boys or girls. Would he ever see his grandchildren, he wondered? What of
Frederick, this child of passion? He felt that he would never be able to
go home to his family with this knowledge. He decided that if he was
released he would never go back to his family in England and face the
shame that he had brought on his family and the humiliation of knowing
that Myra had been disloyal to him. After working out in the open for so
many years he felt that he would never be able to face working in the
pits or in the steelworks again. That’s the only kind of employment he
was likely to get. Dear
Husband, I write these few lines hoping to find you well as it leaves us
at present. We received your letter dated 12th January and we
were glad to receive it.
I don’t doubt that you have written
many
letters that I have never heard tell of. I was once three years
and had not had a letter from you. Your relations said you were dead. I
went to Rotherham Town Hall and asked if they knew whether you was dead
or not. One of the policemen said he had heard you were dead. I put the
children and myself in black for you then I heard that your sister
Elizabeth had got a letter from you. My daughter Ann went to see if they
had told her you were all right and they told her that the letter had
gone to Sheffield. She could not see it, that was the time you were
directing them to your sister. Dear Husband, Elizabeth fetched The Bible
and Robinson Crusoe while I was at the Leeds Assizes. I believe John has
them. John is living at Barrow in Furness. I don’t know the
directions. |