COLLIERY LIFESAVING B.E.M., SILVER CUP & CERTIFICATE TO WILLIAM HENRY JOINER

B.E.M. Gazetted 8 Feb 1957:

"A fall of roof occurred at the Walsall Wood Colliery, at a point where two roads in a seam cross at right angles. Four men were killed outright and a fifth was imprisoned under the stones and inside a cavity about 3 ft square and 2 ft 6 ins high. Mr Schofield immediately went to the scene of the accident and Mr Joiner who had been in another part of the underground workings, joined him. They found that the three approaches to the fall each about 12 ft wide and 4 ft high, were completely blocked by fallen stone and they decided to go over the top to inspect the fourth side, which was in a fast end, a cul-de-sac. They were able to move enough stones to allow Schofield squeeze through into a space about 12 ft square and 6 ft high above the fallen stone. He sent William Henry Joiner for props to support the roof and disregarding the possibility of further falls, started to make a way into the fast end. He was by this time able to talk to the man trapped nder the fall. About ten minutes later Joiner got to the top of the fall and set props to the roof and sides. He noticed that a triangular stone, 8 ft wide, 12 ft long and 2.5 ft high was gradually lowering and, in an attempt to prevent it falling, he built a pack under it with stones that Schofield was removing to make a hole into the fast end. At about this time, Bywater arrived. He took charge in the approach road to the fall. Schofield and Joiner located the imprisoned man, made a passage towards him thtough the stones and eventually were able to release him".