Story
Thomas Crosthwaite was born in Whitkirk on 18th December 1860, and was the first child born to William Crosthwaite (1836-1888) and Ann Steels (1838-1911, pictured below) who married in 1860. Thomas’ younger brothers Israel and Herbert were also rescuers at the pit disaster.
Thomas married Elizabeth Foster (1862-1941) on 10th April 1882 in Leeds. They initially lived in Seacroft, and moved to Micklefield around 1888. The couple raised a large family at 49 Crescent where they lived for over 53 years, and had 4 children at the time of the disaster. Thomas had been a member of the Seacroft cricket team before joining Micklefield and he won the Sagar-Musgrave Cup in 1895.
Thomas gave a detailed account of the explosion and his escape to a reporter, saying: “I went to work between six and seven o’clock, and had between 800 and 900 yards to walk before getting to the workings. About fifteen men were working near, and we had just got started when there came a “waft” which took nearly all the lights, and left us to find our way as best we could. This was a difficult job, for the road on both sides had fallen in, and the tubs were piled on top of each other to a great height, the explosion having blown them about in all directions. Besides this, all the trap-doors were blown into “smithereens,” and we made an effort to get a brattice sheet in order to turn the air. I then came across a boy [George Edwin Dunnington] and a pony, both burnt to ashes. The boy was holding a pony by the head. I walked on, and about 100 yards further I came across another boy [Richard Shepherd], who was dreadfully burnt. I was going to turn him round to see if I could tell who he was, but when I touched his face I found the flesh had been frightfully charred. Along with a mate – William Dobson – I struggled through, and having made a way, we went back and fetch the rest of the fifteen. There was a fairly clear road if we could only scramble through the tubs and the dirt, which had fallen in heaps, and we were glad to go wherever there was room to get our heads through. There was still, however, the current of foul air against us, and I and my mate had been through it twice in order to make a road. When I got to the bottom of the shaft, the rush of fresh air coming in seemed to overpower me, and I felt myself rolling over. Mr. Charles Houfton, the manager, and George Robertshaw, then caught hold of me, and brought me up in the cage. I was very much exhausted, though I remember going up in the cage until getting near the top, and then I seemed to fall away. The men were scattered here and there all over the workings, mostly doing repairs. If this had been an ordinary day they would have been working in large numbers in the different roads. Before we got the road made, past the tubs and the heaps of fallen coal and rubbish, the fifteen of us sat down for a quarter of an hour to consult about what we should do to save our lives. The foul air was coming on fast behind us, and was beginning to stifle us when Dobson and I volunteered to make the effort which ended in our getting clear. If it had not been for this, we should certainly all have been suffocated. It would have been impossible to get out any other road, for we should have been overtaken by the afterdamp. The state of the pit I cannot describe. All the arching and headgear has been blown down and heaped into piles, and the work of clearing the stuff away and getting the workings into shape will take a long time. It will very likely be some months before the pit starts again.” The reporter added that Thomas was complaining of violent pains in the head, and also of sickness, caused by the inhalation of the foul air in the pit. Thomas escaped the pit at 12:30, over 5 hours after the explosion.
Thomas continued to work at Peckfield Colliery, and passed away on 11th October 1938, at the age of 78.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 