Story
Thomas Oakley’s background has been difficult to establish. It is known that he moved in to 8 East View as a lodger to William Flowers and his wife Harriet Bamford in October 1894, and was 50 years-old in 1896, and was unmarried, without any children. There are several Thomas Oakleys who could match these details, and possibly his most likely birthplace was Pilsley, Derbyshire.
On the morning of the disaster, Thomas Oakley and William Flowers walked the short distance to Peckfield Colliery and descended in the lift together. However they were not working in the same district, so they parted at the bottom. William remained at the pit bottom, and lit his pipe. He was waiting for Charles Oxtoby from Garforth to turn up, as they worked together, since for safety reasons, miners could not work alone. After several minutes waiting, the Night Deputy, Joseph Lillyman, turned up and got in the lift to come off duty, and Albert Steel, an Engineman, decided he needed a pulley for the job he was doing, so William decided to go back up to the surface with them. William, Joseph, and Albert emerged at the top, and went their separate ways. The three men had only been out of the pit for about 5 minutes when the explosion occurred. Joseph Lillyman lived on site, so ran back to organise the first rescue party. William had just arrived back at 8 East View when he heard the explosion and ran back to the pit yard. Albert Steel had found his pulley and was waiting at the top to go back down when the explosion occurred, and he suffered a head injury as the lift was blasted up into the headgear.
Thomas Oakley was not as fortunate as his landlord. After leaving William Flowers, Thomas had made his way along the West Level, and then turned South West down the No.4 Dip. He was among a party of six which also comprised William Wilks, Elias Clark, Amos Whitaker, and the Jackson brothers, Joseph and Walter. The Yorkshire Evening Post described their fate: “Their footmarks in the ground could be distinctly traced, showing how hard they fought against fearful odds. Running along No. 4 dip they had gone down the first “gate”, only to find there was no means of escape there: a similar fate met them in two or three other “gates” in which they sought refuge, and then finding they were being overwhelmed by the afterdamp, they apparently sat down and covered their heads with brattice cloth. The poisonous vapours, however, were too much for them and the unfortunate men fell to the ground, and there they were found – six corpses lying together.” Their bodies were found by William Wilson and Robert Routledge, who also noticed that the six men had managed to rig up a piece of brattice cloth at one end of the roadway to reduce the effects of the afterdamp gas which ultimately poisoned them.
Thomas’s body was identified by William Flowers at the Inquest, who stated there was not any apparent sign of violence about the body. Thomas was buried in Micklefield on 3rd May in the first of three batches of victims who were buried that day.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 