Story
Arthur Cawood was born in Seacroft in 1868, and he was the son of Thomas Cawood (1842-1919) and Lydia Carter (1841-1911) who married in Manston, Crossgates on 29th August 1864. In 1881, Arthur was 13 years-old and was already working as a coal miner, with the family living in Garforth. Arthur moved to Micklefield and married Hannah Phyllis Richardson (1869-1942) in 1890, pictured below. On the day of the disaster, Arthur was 28 years-old, and his family were living at 6 East View. Although he worked at Peckfield Colliery, Arthur had the Thursday off. However his older brother, George Carter Cawood (1865-1939) was in the pit.
Arthur heard the explosion, and made the short walk to the colliery, and joined one of the early rescue parties. His brother George survived the explosion, and was brought out alive, before he too repeatedly joined subsequent rescue parties.
On 1st May, Arthur went down the pit at 9am, with 5 men, including Robert Routledge and William Wilson, and his brother George. He stated to reporters: “The air was foul, and we had to “brattice” our way along, taking the pure air with us. We took the west level, and went down as far as No.4 dip to the left, and then we turned round No.4, and had to “brattice” again to carry the air into the gate. There we found six men – or rather five men [Amos Whitaker, Thomas Oakley, William Wilks, the Jackson brothers] and a boy [Elias Clark]. Some of them were lying on their faces, some had their heads resting sideways on their hands, the elbow on the ground, and one – Amos Whitaker – had a smile on his face. We lifted them up and placed them in the corves, and in that way conveyed them a part of the way, and took them that the rest of the distance to the shaft on stretchers. Our party was in the pit from about nine o’clock until nearly three in the afternoon.”
After the disaster, Arthur and Phyllis had their third and final son, Alfred (1897-1950) and then moved to Womersley, where Arthur worked as a farmer. He returned to Micklefield and coal mining by 1911, before he joined the same profession as his brother George, who had left coal mining to run the Swan Inn in Kippax. Arthur took over the Boot & Shoe Inn, where he worked as a farmer and landlord. His eldest son Charles was killed in the First World War in France on 20th July 1918, but his second son Frank (1894-1957) survived the War. Arthur passed away on 29th November 1924, aged 56, and is buried in Micklefield, along with his wife Phyllis.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 