Circumstances of death
Shortly before 9.00am on the morning of Wednesday 1st September 1875, 29-year-old banksman Sutcliffe Hodgson was standing on the landing stage at the top of No.1 shaft which had been drawn back to allow some scaffold boards to be drawn up. A trolley was brought forward to assist with their removal but, as Hodgson attempted to climb on it, he lost his footing and plunged more than 100 feet down the shaft. Near the bottom, his fall was broken by a scaffold plank.
Rescuers found his body to be “fearfully mangled”, his head having being knocked flat and many bones broken. He was carried back to his home at Priestley Hill where his unexpected arrival caused considerable consternation amongst the locals.
An inquest was held at the Olive Branch Inn before William Barstow, the coroner. It was stated that the landing stage had not been secured with its catch, resulting in it slipping back by about 18 inches and causing Hodgson to lose his balance. A verdict of “accidental death” was returned.
Biographical information
The above photo is an AI visualisation.
Sutcliffe Hodgson was born in Northowram, near Halifax, in the spring of 1846 to parents John, 26, and Martha, 20. His father was a hawker of pots and earthenware. He is recorded twice in the 1851 census, firstly with his parents and then at the house of Jonathan and Martha Robertshaw in Ambler Thorn. These were his maternal grandparents who both worked as hand loom weavers, together with their son John.
In 1861, Sutcliffe was living at Ford, next to the New Dolphin Inn, working alongside three of his siblings in a worsted mill. With six children to support, father John is now a cart driver, however, by the time of the 1871 census, he had been widowed and was farming six acres. Living in a private house, he is the head of a family comprising Sutcliffe, a 25-year-old waggoner, Jonathan, 18, a joiner and cabinet maker, and four daughters, all of whom are working as alpacca spinners together with several of their neighbours.
Newspaper reports suggest that, shortly before his death, Sutcliffe had recently married and was living with his new wife at Priestley Hill, Queensbury. No records have been found to support this.
