Newspaper Extracts
Accident at Masborough Station, Rotherham
November, 1870Yesterday morning, about a quarter to 11 o'clock, an accident of a very singular character, occurred on a siding of the Midland Railway, near the Masborough station, Rotherham, by which 4 persons were injured.
It appears that a heavy coal train was being shunted from the main line to the Midland Ironworks, when at a curve one of the trucks left the rails and dashed into a dwelling house standing close to the line, and occupied by a carter named Martin Sherdon, his wife, and two children, aged three and five years respectively. The cottage, which adjoins a public house, was almost entirely demolished, only part of one of the walls remaining standing, and three of the coal trucks were also greatly damaged, two of them apparently past repair, and their contents scattered around.
Mrs. Sherdon and the two children were the only occupants of the house at the time of the accident, and they were buried beneath the ruins of their home.
The employees of the Midland Iron Company and the officials employed at the station were quickly on the spot, and exerted themselves in extricating the three unfortunates from their perilous position. Drs. Saville and Robinson were summoned to the scene of the occurrence, and on an examination being made it was found that both Mrs. Sherdon, who is near her confinement, and her children were very seriously bruised, and it appears almost miraculous how they escaped with their lives.
As a carter named Wainwright was assisting in the removal of the rubbish a wheel of one of the broken waggons fell upon one of his legs and fractured it, and another person had a very narrow escape from meeting with a similar accident.
The house which has been destroyed by this accident was similarly demolished about three years ago.
