Story
William Radford was the Peckfield Colliery Under Manager, and was the most senior employee of the Micklefield Coal & Lime Company to be killed in the disaster. William had also been Manager at the Victoria Colliery in Bruntcliffe, Morley (pictured below), before working at Micklefield. He brought Robert Henry Nevins from Victoria Colliery to work as the Black Bed deputy at Peckfield Colliery. This seems an unlikely friendship, as Nevins described himself as “not such a good living man”, whilst William was a Primitive Methodist and local preacher. He was known to take his safety lamp on camp speeches. Nevins had bigamously married Radford’s second cousin, Mary Shooter (1849-1913), who herself had not got a divorce from her first marriage to her first cousin, Richard Gibson, so there was a family connection.
William was born in Alfreton, Derbyshire on 30th October 1838. His mother, Ann Radford (née Smith) passed away on 5th July 1841, aged when William was only 3 years-old. His father, Joseph Radford (1809-1889) was a Colliery Bailiff and Steward, and re-married Elizabeth Swain (1812-1886) in her home-town of Chesterfield on 28th February 1842. When his father passed away on 14th August 1889, given William’s faith, it is possible that he added the rather prophetic inscription on the bottom of their gravestone: “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Proverbs 27, I.”
In 1861, William was 23 years-old and was still working as a coal miner, but by the time he married Eliza Spencer in her home-town of Shirland, Derbyshire on 17th February 1863, he had become Under-Manager at a colliery. By 1871, William was living in Birchwood, and was the Colliery Manager and the local Methodist preacher. Although he is noted as being married on this and all subsequent censuses, his wife Eliza does not live with him. Two children were living with William in 1871: Mary Radford (1865) and John William Radford (1866). By 1881, William had left both Birchwood and Bruntcliffe, and had moved to Micklefield. He did not buy a house in Micklefield, but instead lodged with a Railway Signalman, Edwin Dwyer and his wife Jane at 2 Railway Cottages, Station Row.
On the day of the disaster, William was working in his Office, close to the bottom of the main shaft, and next to the stables. He was sat at his desk completing paperwork, and talking to one of his deputies, John Wallis, when the explosion occurred. One of the miners, George Hicks had just entered the office to get his lamp, and saw William Radford sitting at a small desk writing, with John Wallis opposite him. The explosion caused one of the walls to blow down, and John Wallis was thrown across the desk and collided against William Radford. Hicks then saw a wall of flame which he thought had been caused by the oil stored in a building, but this was apparently unaffected. Although he was badly burnt trying to escape, George Hicks survived the disaster. The bodies of Radford and Wallis were later seen by another survivor, Caleb Atack, who had decided to check out the offices whilst they were waiting at the bottom of the shaft to be rescued. He described how the heads of Radford and Wallis had been jammed together, as if they had been smashed against each other. Despite the fire, there was no indication that they had been burnt, and it is likely they were killed by the force of the impact against each other.
The body of William Radford was brought out between 3am and 6am on the 1st May, and identified at 11:50am on the same day. William’s younger half-brother, Joseph Radford was also an Under Manager at a Colliery in Tibshelf. He arrived at Micklefield at 11am and so had to identify William’s body in the Joiner’s shed within 50 minutes of arriving. Joseph stated that the only mark he could see on William was an abrasion of skin on the back of his right hand, which was possibly caused from an instinctive reaction to protect his head from the impact of John Wallis being propelled towards him. Wallis’s mouth was found to have bled, which is likely to have been caused by the same impact against Radford’s hand.
William Radford was not buried in Micklefield, but was taken back to Tibshelf and buried there on 3rd May 1896. The press reported he had been buried nearby at Clay Cross, but his weathered grave lies flat at St John the Baptist Church, Tibshelf, where the registrar noted William had been killed in the colliery disaster (below):
William left a comparatively moderate estate of £48 13s 11d (about £4.5k today), and probate was granted to William Moore, a Shoemaker.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 