Princess Royal Colliery
Owned by Princess Royal Colliery Co. Ltd.


BOB ADAMS Diary
(supplied by Malcolm Norris, Bream)

Gloucester Journal
Saturday 6th June 1931

SAMUEL RICKARDS aged 47 collier
Injured on 30th March 1931
Died 29th May 1931

FATAL ACCIDENT
Bob Adams Diary:
Sam Richards (sic)
‘Killed in 58 Dipple’.

Gloucester Journal:
Pinned Under Rock
Collier’s Fatal Accident
Fall Of Roof In Dean Forest
A Forest of Dean collier told the Gloucester Deputy Coroner Tuesday how a man he was working with was pinned under a fallen rock in a colliery for about an hour and a half. The injured man, Samuel Rickards, of Pillowell, near Lydney, had a fractured spine, and he died two months later in the Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary.
Mr. E. W. Clifford (the Deputy Coroner) who conducted the inquest, explained to the jury that Rickards was employed at the Princess Royal Colliery, Whitecroft, and the accident happened while he was working on March 30th.
Mrs. Lydia Rickards, the widow, said her husband was 47 years of age.
James Nash, a collier, of Lower Ellwood, near Coleford, said he was working with Rickards. He was filling trams, and Rickards was working at the coal-face. Nash said that a ew minutes previously he had left the spot where Rickards was working. While he was at the back of the tram he heard Rickards, who was two or three yards away, shout for help

Roof Fallen On Him
The roofing, which was rock, had fallen on him. One side of the rock fell on the trams and pinned Rickards underneath. The working was properly timbered, but he could not say whether there was a prop under the portion of roof that fell in or not.. There was no sign of any breaking at all.
George Baker, a colliery overman, of Primrose Cottage, Clearwell, said he was in charge of the district where Rickards was working. A few days before the accident, everything appeared to be in order at the spot where the rock fell. When he was told of the accident he went with two deputies to the scene. It took them five minutes to get there, and they found Rickards under a large stone weighing three or four tons. Rickards had not received the full force of the fall, because one end had fallen on the tram and the other on a rise in the ground.. Rickards was sitting, with his head forced forwards, and his right arm pinned on the edge of the tram. They got him out an hour and a half afterwards.

Unforeseen Slip
Rickards said his back was hurting, so they brought him to the surface on a stretcher. Baker added that the fall was caused by an unforeseen slip in the rock, aws was not due to the props being faulty.
Dr Courtenay S. Lewis said Rickards had a fractured spine, and the lower part of his body being paralysed. Four of his ribs were fractured, and he was suffering from shock. He gradually became weaker, and his death on May 29th was caused by toxaemia.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.