Leeds nostalgia: Miner who had miraculous escape

The incident happened at Shaw Cross Colliery, where Mr Smith, who was married, had worked for about 12 months, although he had worked in mines for four years.

He and some other men had climbed into one of the lifts to ascend the 1,500ft to the surface but when the cage was about a quarter of the way up, Mr Smith was seen to tumble head first out of it. His colleagues were left dumbfounded and had to continue on to the surface not knowing his fate but clearly suspecting the worst.

According to the story in the Yorkshire Evening Post on January 9, Mr Smith somehow managed to grab onto a girder during his fall and there he clung for several minutes, fatigued and injured. The YEP even printed a diagram showing his near miraculous escape.

On the point of collapse from exhaustion, Mr Smith then managed a further Herculean feat by swinging himself into a narrow connecting tunnel between the two lift shafts. It was this act which ultimately saved his life.

When the original lift made it to the surface, workers sounded the alarm and the lift in the parallel shaft was sent down to determine his fate. Needless to say, they were most surprised and delighted to discover him alive and - if not entirely well - conscious, at least.

Mr Smith lived in Meanwood Street, Leeds, when the accident occurred. His mate, D Gallagher, who was in the lift with him, said: “Presumably, he grabbed at the girder as he was falling. I don’t know how he managed to do it.”