Descent into Silence

No-one gave a second’s thought to the victims of a mining disaster nearthe small Yorkshire village of Cawthorne in 1821, even though two werechildren of just eight-years-old. Former MP David Hinchliffe’s exploration of his family history inadvertentlyled to the discovery of his collier ancestors’ involvement in the barely recordedand long-forgotten pit tragedy, which occurred amidst of the turbulence of theindustrial revolution.The exploration of these two intertwined strands – and a passionateinterest in local history in Yorkshire – has enabled him finally to reveal the fulldetails of a melancholy event which devastated the families of the ten whowere killed - but caused barely a ripple further afield. Using contemporary reports to help piece the jigsaw together, historicalcontext and detailed genealogical research into the backgrounds of thoseinvolved, this account offers a fascinating insight into the lives of working classfamilies across the period, when children as young as five were forced to workunderground in order to supplement the household income. The research also illustrates how the split between the businessmenoperating local pits, and landowners like the Spencer-Stanhopes of Cawthorne'sCannon Hall, led to an apparent disregard for the safety and wellbeing of thelocal workforce. The unforgiving inhumanity of the time is underlined by the way the local‘Overseers of the Poor’ endeavoured to eject two of the victims’ families fromthe area when they had fallen on hard times after the disaster. And, most ironically of all, how the lauded death of Sir Walter Spencer-Stanhope is recorded in the parish register directly opposite that of the youngand until now unheralded John Hinchliffe.

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