Thought that you bunch may enjoy this. Any more? Dave Listowner Potteries The Saturday January 18th Edition of "The Sentinel" newspaper includes the following item "This year marks the centenary of the death of Thomas Holland in one of the most horrifying accidents in Potteries history. He was swallowed up by an old pitshaft which opened up beneath his feet in St John Street, Hanley, as he walked to work one morning in 1903, Poor Thomas was never seen again and a funeral service was held around the gaping hole. It was claimed the victim, a keen Salvationist, was singing the well known hymn "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" at the very moment he disappeared down the shaft. Afterwards Hanley Town Council agreed to conduct an inquiry into disused pitshafts in the area, but the investigations made little progress because many had never been mapped"

Dave - When I read the sentinel on Satdee night my memories flooded back to about 1958ish As a young lad I lived just off St John Street in Hillchurch Street and we used to go along there to get to Broom Street School. Many a time we had folks shout at us " Thayt end up larke Tummy Ulland they wilt" You see, opposite where Tommy was reputed to have gone down the shaft the houses have a small wall in the front, with a very long stretch and a short un where the door is then a nother long en and so on . Well we used get on these walls and run along and jump/skip over the gaps as dares . When we used get to the end we'd jump down on ter the pavement and thats when folks would shite at us. All the kids around knew the story but we all thought it was made up by Mams to keep yer good. Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Ogden" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 12:53 AM Subject: [Pots] Pit death > Thought that you bunch may enjoy this. Any more? > > Dave > Listowner Potteries > > The Saturday January 18th Edition of "The Sentinel" newspaper includes the > following item > > "This year marks the centenary of the death of Thomas Holland in one of the > most horrifying accidents in Potteries history. > He was swallowed up by an old pitshaft which opened up beneath his feet in > St John Street, Hanley, as he walked to work one morning in 1903, Poor > Thomas was never seen again and a funeral service was held around the gaping > hole. > It was claimed the victim, a keen Salvationist, was singing the well known > hymn "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" at the very moment he disappeared > down the shaft. Afterwards Hanley Town Council agreed to conduct an inquiry > into disused pitshafts in the area, but the investigations made little > progress because many had never been mapped" > > > > ==== ENG-STS-THE-POTTERIES Mailing List ==== > The List for the Pottery Towns of the Ancient County of Staffordshire > >