Herbert, Joseph & Walter Winfield

Story

The three brothers were sons of George Winfield (1835-1887) of Isley-cum-Langley in North West Leicestershire and Elizabeth Harvey (1833-1904) of Oakthorpe, South East Derbyshire. The couple married on 9^th November 1856 in Donisthorpe, Derbyshire. They went on to have 8 children, before George was killed on 27^th April 1887 in a mining accident at Netherseal Colliery in Derbyshire (pictured below). He was crushed in a roof fall whilst getting down top coal from a waste goaf, and is remembered below.

At this time of her husband’s death, the eldest three of her children had already married, but Elizabeth Winfield (pictured above) brought most of her family up North in 1888, where they started working at the Peckfield Colliery. Her eldest daughter, Sarah Ann Winfield (1850-1932) had married Joseph Day (1857-1931) in Church Gresley, Derbyshire on 25^th July 1880, and Joseph also worked at Peckfield Colliery. Herbert John Winfield was born in Oakthorpe, Leicestershire in 1861, and didn’t join up with the rest of his family in Micklefield at the same time. He married Maria Smith (1873-1934) in Church Gresley on 4^th August 1884, and was living in Linton, Derbyshire in 1891, before they made the move to Newthorpe shortly after. Joseph Winfield was born in Oakthorpe in 1863, married Harriet Buckley in 1882, and they moved to 31 Crescent, Micklefield, along with Joseph’s mother, and his siblings, Walter, Reuben and Lois. Joseph’s wife Harriet passed away in 1891, during childbirth, so he was a widower with four children, three siblings, and his mother to support. Bertha Mary Winfield (1867-1911) also did not make the move North immediately after the death of her father. She married John Smith (1862-1900) in Burton-on-Trent on 24^th May 1885, and only moved North after her husband’s death. She re-married Thomas Mills in Castleford on 28^th October 1900, witnessed by her sister, Sarah Ann Day, and re-married again two years later to Frederick Moakes (1868-1929) in Hunslet. Frederick had been a rescuer at the 1896 Peckfield Colliery Disaster. Walter Winfield was born in Oakthorpe in 1870. After moving to Micklefield, he married Salome Guy (1873-1951) in 1893, and had two children. He was living at 14 New Row, Micklefield.

On the morning of the disaster, Joseph Day, Herbert, Joseph, Walter and Reuben Winfield arrived at the pit top together at 6:30am, and went down in the lift together. They separated at the pit bottom. Joseph Day and Reuben Winfield were amongst the third group to be rescued, so may have been working together. Joseph and Walter Winfield walked along the West Level, then turned down the No.3 Dip, along with Edwin Maggs and Joseph Johnson. Herbert Winfield carried further along the West Level, and turned up the New North Road. He was alongside William Sheldon, Edward Goodall and Job Millership when they walked passed John Goodall’s Gate. Moments later the explosion happened. Herbert, and the three men accompanying him, had a few seconds to react and ran East, but all four were killed. Herbert was crushed by a roof fall, not unlike his father nine years earlier.

Joseph and Walter had a little longer to react. They ran back East up the No.3 Dip, but they were overcome by afterdamp poisoning. Edwin Charles Maggs had made it the furthest, then followed Walter, then Joseph. The fourth member of their party, Joseph Johnson, had decided to turn back and try another direction, but also succumbed to afterdamp gas.

The bodies of Joseph, aged 33, and Walter, aged 23, were recovered on the 1^st May between 3am and 6am, after being found by the rescue party led by the Peckfield Colliery Manager, Charles Houfton. They had fallen about half a mile from the shaft bottom. Their bodies were identified later the same day by their brother-in-law Joseph Day, who stated that their faces were puffed up.

Joseph Day also identified the body of his third brother-in-law, Herbert Winfield, aged 38, which was recovered from the pit the following day, Joseph reported that Herbert’s face had been crushed. At a probate hearing in Wakefield on 4^th May, Herbert’s effects of £30 were given to his widow Maria. Maria and her one year-old daughter Ruth later moved back down to Leicestershire.

Their mother, Elizabeth Winfield, continued to live at 31 Crescent, but since Joseph’s wife had already died, she also had to care for his four children, as well as her own youngest children. Elizabeth’s grandaughter Ethel Day was also living with her in 1901. Elizabeth passed away in 1904. The eldest child of Joseph Winfield, George William (1882-1957) went on to marry Agnes Moakes (1882-1963), daughter of George Moakes who was killed in the disaster. They went on to have 8 children, one of whom was Herbert Winfield (1917-1996). He married Rita Best (1920-2011), who was the granddaughter of Walter Winfield, killed in the disaster.

Walter’s widow, Salome, remarried a rescuer in the disaster, Arthur Cator (1873-1950) in Leeds on 19^th June 1897, and went on to have a further 5 children, the eldest of whom, Laura Jane Cator (1899-1942) went on to marry John Herbert Winfield (1898-1960), the eldest child of Reuben Winfield, who survived the disaster. Of the two children Salome had with Walter, their eldest, George Herbert Winfield, was born in Micklefield on 14^th May 1894. He was killed in action in Turkey during the First World War on 25^th April 1915. Walter’s daughter Murilla was born 28^th March 1896 and married Sydney Best (1894-1967) in Castleford on 14^th February 1920. Arthur Cator’s younger brother, Walter Cator was born in 1876. He married the youngest of George and Elizabeth Winfield’s children, Lois Winfield (1876-1943) in 1898, but Walter died on 1^st May 1916 at home in Micklefield, from wounds sustained during the First World War.

The Winfields continued to play a prominent role in local life. Below are a selection, which includes (l-r): Bertha Mary Winfield (1867-1911); then seven grandchildren of Joseph Winfield who was killed in the disaster: Parish Councillor Joe Winfield (1903-1979); Ernest (1904-1943); Wilfred (1906-1982); Dorothy (1911-2000); George William (1914-1980); Parish Councillor Herbert (1917-1996); Joan (1920-1998); and bottom right, Walter’s daughter, Marilla Winfield (1896-1960).