Circumstances of death
At about 9.30am on Sunday 17th June 1877, a 30-year-old platelayer named Captain Pickles was assisting three other men - including Henry Johnson and Thomas Young - to push a trolley loaded with sleepers into the tunnel from the north end at Hole Bottom. They would thereafter lay a section of track. However a number of the sleepers were overhanging the side and, when they arrived at a location where excavation/lining work was still taking place, this resulted in them striking one of the vertical roof supports.
A collapse occurred, causing a half-ton timber to fall which struck Pickles on the back of the head. His right leg was also broken in two places and he sustained such other severe injuries that death was instantaneous. The other men fled - escaping injury - with the exception of one who was knocked down.
Pickles’ body was removed to the Old Dolphin Inn where it was laid out by Mary Hartley, prior to an inquest held before William Barstow, the coroner. She recounted how it had a deep cut on the back of the head, severe crush injuries to the chest and neck, whilst his right thigh and shin were broken. Foreman carpenter William Rockelton asserted that the prop must have been struck with great force to drive it out.
A verdict of “accidental death” was returned.
Biographical information
The above photo is an AI visualisation.
Captain Pickles lived at Cotton Hole in Shelf, Halifax, for much of his life. He was born there early in 1847, one of six children to father Abraham - a carter and farmer of three acres - and mother Amelia. He was baptised on 7th July 1850 together with his sisters Sarah and Susannah.
By the age of 14, Captain was working as a carter - probably alongside his father - helping to transport goods. However, by the time of the 1871 census, Pickles Snr had passed away. Instead Amelia is recorded as head of the household, farming five acres. Captain is labouring for her, whilst siblings Elizabeth, Mary Jane and Tom are earning a living as worsted weavers and spinners.
On 15th May 1877, Captain married Edna Oddy, six years his junior, at Bradford Parish Church. They moved in together with his new wife’s family at Slack Bottom near Wibsey. It was possibly in an effort to give Edna a better life that he got a job on the new railway, platelayers being better paid than agricultural labourers. However, just one month after the wedding, Captain succumbed to his injuries in Queensbury Tunnel.
He was buried at St Paul’s Church, Buttershaw, on 20th June.
