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 A very bizarre story lies behind this entry in Ashover parish registers: “1660 - Dorothy Mately, - supposed wife of John Flint of this parish, forswore herself, whereupon the ground opened, and she sunk over her head 23rd March and being found dead, she was buried 25th March.”
Dorothy Mately had a reputation as a liar and a thief. If challenged she would curse and swear violently, protesting her innocence with the words “I wish God would make the earth open and swallow me up if this is not so”.
One day the woman was at her usual task of washing ore at a mine when she was accused of stealing two pence from another worker. The usual furious denial followed then almost immediately she was heard crying for help. An amazed onlooker turned to see her twirling and sinking into the ground.
By the time she stopped spinning she was three yards (3m) down. Before anyone could help her, a boulder fell on her head and the earth caved in. When her body was recovered the missing coins were found in her pocket.
Numerous deaths were caused underground by rock falls and drowning. Miners were often up to their knees in water. Some preferred working in wooden clogs rather than soddened boots.
In 1830 three men were suffocated in Maypits Mine, Sheldon, after rival miners lit a fire to try to smoke them out. Just over 100 years later, eight miners were killed in a gas explosion at Mawstone Mine, Youlgreave. Three had died trying to rescue the others. Underground work at the mine never started again.
No wonder miners were superstitious. They protected their mines from witchcraft with branches of rowan and firmly believed in an invisible entity known as The Knocker.
Castleton lead miners sometimes took a child down the mine for luck, so it must have been a very lucky day when a baby was actually born down a mine. The arrival of little Jeremy Royse took his mother by surprise when she was at work in Speedwell Mine but he was born safe and sound.
A left-handed miner must have thought himself lucky. He was always certain of a job because he could work in narrow places without getting in the way of his right-handed - and lower-paid - partner.
Want to know more?
The Mawstone Mine Tragedy by Peter J Naylor. Peak District Mines Historical Society Bulletin. vol. 8 no. 3 1982
Bradwell ancient and modern. Seth Evans 1912
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