Man Engulfed
Terrible accident in Hanley : Pitshaft opens in St. John Street

"Under these headlines the Sentinel reported, to the extent of two columns, in its issue of December 3rd, 1903, an accident which has probably stuck in the public mind during the subsequent half century more than many local disasters involving the loss of more lives than one. Why?

First, no doubt, because of the bizarre nature of the accident itself. A man walks along a street in what was then regarded as one of Hanley's best residential districts, the ground suddenly yawns before him, he falls through the gap and is never seen again.

Secondly, by the strange coincidence that the man, immediately before he disappeared, was said to have been singing a wellknown Salvation Army hymn, in which he had just reached the words:

When the roll is called up yonder I'll he there.

The victim of the accident was a man named Thomas Holland. He was 56, and worked for a firm of candle manufacturers. Under the ground, as it turned out, was a disused pit, full of gas. Another man saw Holland "lurch forward, throw up his arms, and fall". Running as near to the spot as he dared, he saw only "a gaping hole" where Holland had been.

On Monday, December 5th, appeared another two columns describing the burial service, held round the railed-off hole, in wet and bitterly cold weather. An emergency meeting of the Hanley Town Council was reported in the same issue. Here the Mayor (Councillor H. B. Shirley) announced that "the panic had been quelled".

It was at this meeting that a councillor, Mr. T. W. Harrison, seconding a resolution of sympathy with the dead man's family, told the story of his singing the hymn. His authority was a man named Jones, another witness of the accident"

Rendezvous with the Past
Sentinel Centenary
1854-1954