Story
Joseph was born on 4th December 1876 in Aberford, and was the first of 11 children born to James Wilson (1844-1911) and Mary Rudderham (1853-1913) who had married in Sherburn in Elmet on 26th February 1876. The family lived in Aberford, moving from Ratten Row in 1881 to Bank’s Row in 1891.
Joseph was 19 years-old on the day of the explosion. He would have been among ten miners from Aberford who made their way to work that morning. Five miners returned, and the five who survived, including Joseph, were all working in the Black Bed seam. The other Aberford survivors were William Camply, Thomas Freeman, Thomas and Fred Nutton.
Joseph explained that when the explosion hit him, he had been going on a run with a number of corves. He was hit by a flying trapdoor, which knocked him from one flat sheet to the next, and then he just saw smoke and dust. After Joseph recovered, he made his way back to join up with the other 10 survivors in the Black Bed, including his deputy, Robert Henry Nevins, and the 11 miners began their difficult climb up the stone drift used for ventilation, which connected the Black Bed at 240 feet below ground level, with the Beeston Bed, which was 175 feet below ground level. The group had great difficulty in fighting through the afterdamp gas which was poisoning them, and any man unable to support themselves eventually had to be left behind. Fred Atkinson was already concussed from being knocked off a platform by the force of the blast, and was the only man who had to be abandoned. The remaining nine miners made it to the No.2 shaft, and were helped by survivors from the Beeston Bed. Joseph had escaped the pit by noon. Fred Atkinson had managed to continue crawling towards the shaft and was picked up by the rescue party, and was brought out alive, which meant all the miners from the Black Bed survived the disaster.
After the explosion, Joseph married Alice Heilds (1878-1942) in 1898. He left mining, and moved to Chapel Yard, Aberford, where he worked as a Grocer’s Assistant. By 1911, his family had moved to Budge Cottages, and Joseph had returned to coal mining. They later moved to Leeds, and had 10 children. Joseph passed away in 1931, aged 54.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 