Story
Thomas was born in Thornton, Leicestershire in 1864, and Sam was born on 25th February 1872 in Derbyshire. They were sons of Timothy Grimbley (1835-1901) and Mary Ann Roper (1837-1906) who married in Leicestershire in 1860. Like many mining families from the Midlands, they moved North after Peckfield Colliery opened. In 1891, Timothy and Mary Ann were living at 4 Station Row, Micklefield, with Samuel. Thomas had married and was living in Sherburn-in-Elmet. Another brother Arthur Grimbley (1868-1928) was amongst the rescuers at the pit disaster.
On 20th June 1891, Samuel Grimbley was found guilty of gambling. Superintendent Thomas Stott would be in attendance at the subsequent colliery disaster, and Noah Ball, who was also found guilty, would be killed:
Thomas Grimbley was one of the first miners to escape the pit on the morning of the disaster. The Yorkshire Evening Post reported on the 30th April that the first rescue party had brought out George Hicks, Edward Simpson, Robert Henry Nevins, Fred Nutton and Thomas Grimbley, who was uninjured. John Walton was later stated to be amongst this first group of survivors. After the disaster, Thomas and his family left Micklefield, and moved to Sheffield, then South Normanton in Derbyshire, followed by Atherton near Leigh, and then returned to Sherburn in Elmet, but continued to work as a coal miner throughtout. He had 10 children, one of whom was killed in the First World War: Thomas Grimbley Jnr. (1890-1919). Thomas himself passed away in 1935.
Sam Grimbley was 24 years-old, but had been working at Peckfield Colliery for 8 years. At the time of the explosion, he was in the ‘Fairy’s Bord’, East Level. He blocked his ears to dull the noise, but said that the noise was so loud, he was dazed. In the darkness, he found other survivors from the working place known as 49, who were John Sissons, John Render and Josiah Godber. This group met up with Charles Ball’s group, and collectively they found their way out. Sam recounted passing one dead man, who was his deputy James Shillito, and said that the man had his head blown off. Charles Ball examined him and said “It’s no use stopping, he’s dead enough.” Sam also remembered finding a survivor who they carried with them. This man had his hair and whiskers burnt, so they wrapped a handkerchief around his head. The survivor would have been George Hicks. Sam also witnessed the bodies of William Radford, the Underground Manager and John Wallis, and said that the trapdoors and brattice sheets had all been destroyed. At the bottom of No.1 shaft they heard a rescuer shout to come round to No.2 shaft, so they turned back to be 600 yards from where they were working, and found the atmosphere was clearer on the return airway. At the bottom of No.2 shaft, they met up with the Black Bed group, and were talking when two men (Nevins and Simpson) were overcome by afterdamp and started vomiting. They rubbed their backs, until they could be taken up the repaired lift. Sam also told the rescue party about Fred Atkinson, who had been left behind by the survivors of the Black Bed, as Atkinson was unable to walk, and they were too weak to carry him further. Fred Atkinson was later brought out alive. After escaping the pit, Sam went round to the village club and played Billiards with a friend.
Sam later married Mary Ellen Naylor (1864-1951) in Leeds in 1902, and lived in Newthorpe, where he took over the New Inn and was Landlord from 9th February 1911 until his death in 1948, at the age of 75.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 