From the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7526883.stm :

A woman has died in hospital after falling down disused mine workings in Ayrshire.

The 44-year-old fell about 40ft into the mine, close to the Barrwood Gate housing development in Galston. Firefighters and the police mountain rescue team were called to the scene at about 0215 BST.

She was freed at about 0800 BST and airlifted to Crosshouse Hospital near Kilmarnock where she later died. The woman has not yet been named by police.

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said a report will be prepared for the procurator fiscal. Inquiries are continuing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.

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This is an even bigger tragedy than the last one, as this woman was just an ordinary member of the public, not a mine explorer.

I suspect that the Coal Authority will have to take drastic action and make serious efforts to fill all old shafts. But I doubt that they know just how many there are, as records of older workings are very incomplete.

Hopefully the authorities will confine their attention to coal shafts only, and the (usually) somewhat safer metal and limestone workings that many of us enjoy will be allowed to remain. But some serious efforts at fencing around shafts would not go amiss, and if properly done would not impede our activities.

I hope there will not be an irrational political backlash, which would result in wholesale destruction of mining sites.

A very tragic event - not one that could have been foreseen according to the reports...

Some more press clippings:

Sunday People:

A mum of two died yesterday after plunging 40ft down a disused mine shaft.

Tragic Alison Hume, 44, was taking a short-cut across a field behind her home in the early hours after visiting a relative.

Daughter Jane, 18, went looking for her after she failed to return - and found her distressed mum.

A neighbour said: "Jane heard what she thought was a cat but when she got closer to where the opening was in the ground she heard her mother crying out for help.

"Jane ran back to the house and called police, then went back to comfort her." A six-hour rescue mission followed and Alison was airlifted to hospital at 8am but later died.

She was separated and lived with Jane and younger daughter Sophie in Galston, Ayrshire.

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Alison was about to start a new career after studying law. The neighbour said: "She had everything to live for." Cops are investigating.

STV

A woman has died after falling into a disused mineshaft in Ayrshire. It happened in the town of Galston during the early hours of this morning. An investigation has been launched and police are warning local residents to stay away from the scene until it has been made safe.

Police were called to the site just after two o'clock on Saturday morning to reports of a 44-year-old woman apparently stranded in a disused mineshaft. It seems that what had happened was she had been walking when the ground simply gave way beneath her, and she fell around 40 or 50 feet.

It took officers from the police, fire service, ambulance and mountain rescue about six hours to get her out, which they finally did about eight o'clock this morning. Initially, there was cause for optimism about her condition, she was apparently conscious and talking. She was taken by air ambulance to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, but she later died.

Police have now launched an investigation into exactly what happened. Chief superintendent Bill Fitzpatrick from Strathclyde Police said: "Clearly a tragedy has occurred, and we have to get to the bottom of those circumstances, but our first immediate priority is to maintain safety in this area. We the police will maintain a presence here till we're told and informed it is safe. Other authorities, the local authority, the Coal Board, have taken action here already to make sure it's a safer environment. They'll continue their inquiries, and at some point, hopefully in the near future, they'll be able to tell us this place is as safe as it possibly can be for the public."

The area is popular for people out walking, exercising, dogs, using it as a shortcut between a couple of different residential estates, so it has now been
sealed off in order to ensure safety to keep people out while those investigations continue.

Sounds like some kind of collapse, not necessarily a shaft, although from the descriptions it may have been a very badly capped and overgrown shaft. That is somewhat scary, as there are shallow mine workings, not only for coal, in many places.

I doubt that grouting every shallow working in the UK, as they had to do recently in Kincardine, is practicable.

Another linkhttp://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/07/27/mum-dies-after-60ft-fall-down-disused-mine-78057-20672874/  (Sunday mail) but not much more information.

My other half knew the woman who died. She says that people were quite concerned about the local area, as there was signs of subsidence, probably not helped by the local building works.
My other half is even LESS keen on my mine exploring habits
now!! :oops:

moorelandmineral,

Do you have the exact location please? We know it is a short-cut between parts of the town, and the photo shows the base of a power pole, if I am not mistaken.

On Google Earth I can see three areas that answer that description. One is bounded by Ladyton Drive, Boyd Street, Standalane Street and Park Road, and looks flat, but with traces of old buildings, and possibly 2 shafts.

The second is a long, narrow strip between the south end of Barwood Gate and Western Road, with trees and probable footpath, the third is a rough part of the field, with footpaths, between Catherine Drive and Barrwood Gate. Or am I way off the mark?

I assume that there has been some new building since the GE photos were taken. I wonder how they passed the legally required coal survey, even if it is just a search of records, and what will now happen to property values? Obviously we don't want to see large-scale demolition as happened hear Edinburgh a few years ago, due to subsidence. Maybe the Coal Authority will have to grout a large area?

Maybe some people here have ideas on how to placate your other half? When I had one of those, a long time ago, she was hoping for a collapse.....

Alan

moorelandmineral,
Do you have the exact location please? We know it is a short-cut between parts of the town, and the photo shows the base of a power pole, if I am not mistaken.

The exact location is in the field in the link below. The lady was taking a shortcut from the town to Barwood Gate.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=galston&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=12.918331,28.300781&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=55.60062,-4.393705&spn=0.003012,0.006909&z=17 

The photos are are a few years out of date. The field to the north is now the site of a new school, which has almost completed construction.

That area is known to be riddled with mines. There has been a lot of subsidence in that area over the years, although the exact cause is not certain. Local gossip always blames mineshafts for everything from the river floooding to trees falling over. In this case, however, there seems little doubt the collapse must be related to a mineshaft of some kind.

Aaron95,

The link just gives me a grey rectangle (maybe Google's servers are having problems?) but if I paste what I guess are the correct numbers in the URL (55.60062, -4.393705) into Google Earth, it does indicate the middle of a field, very near but not exactly where I suspected. Still, I was only 40 metres off. And I do see why the lady was going across the field, and not through the rough ground. Easier walking.

The rough ground to the north, and to the south west, certainly look very suspicious as far as mining is concerned.

I wonder what can be done to prevent tragedies like this? One answer, doubtless unpopular, would be to open-cast mine the remaining coal, i.e. the pillars in the shallow workings. (I assume this must have been room and pillar, longwall ought not to leave cavities as the subsidence mostly happens immediately.) Grouting can't be economic except when very localised.

There do seem to be signs of subsidence near to Barrwood Gate. I wonder what the Coal Authority reports for these fairly new houses said about potential problems?

Alan

Sorry you are unable to see anything from the link. If it's any help, the shortcut runs from the end of Shield Terrace, across the field towards Barwood Gate. There's not really any rough ground in the area, some of the fields look a little overgrown, but the aerial photos are about 5 year old reckon.

There is a sort of path through the field, but in the dark, it would be easy to not stay on it, which is most likely what happened to this lady. The reason people take that shortcut through the fields is that it's about a mile round if you go via the roads. It's not obvious from the aerial photos, but you have to go out of the town via Titchfield Street, and then walk down the A71.

It's well known that a large area of land around Galston has been mined, But the problem is these mins date from about 1830 until roughly 1900. The last known mine in the area closed in 1931, but most of the mining went on in the 1800's. These were coal mines, but are all long since gone.

Of course some shafts were recorded on maps, which survive to this day, but many are not. If there were any maps made at the time, they have long since been lost and so. There are quite a few sites in the area that have subsided or collapsed, but without anyone being affected. This lady must have been extremely unlucky. The collapse must either have happened while she was on top of it, or happened that day, or earlier that day, and she subsequently walked into it. I imagine it would be completely invisible on a dark night in the middle of a field.

Yes, I see what you mean about the short cut being necessary. It is a long way round via the A71.

I hope they will now, at the very least, put in a proper footpath, with lighting. That might make it a bit safer.

But yes, she was extremely unlucky.

I have had a look on old-maps, and the upper patch of rough ground was Loudon Rows, probably miners housing, in 1897, while the lower patch was Goatfoot Colliery. Goatfoot house or farm was where the houses in Barrwood Close now are. The colliery was still there in 1938.

The course of the colliery railway is still discernible, curving parallel to Milands Road, and passing through Shield Terrace. The curve is visible in the field, passing through the isolated pair of trees.

There are at least two small depressions in the field, very near to the accident site. Maybe air shafts from an older colliery, badly filled? That could explain a lot.

I presume the local Sheriff Court will be conducting a fatal accident inquiry? That will probably reveal a lot.

Alan

Maps.live.com has a better picture I think - you can make out the path I think...

http://maps.live.com/#JndoZXJlMT1nYWxzdG9uJmJiPTU5LjY2Nzc0MDU4MTY0OTYlN2U2LjU5MTc5Njg3NDk5OTk5JTdlNTEuNTcyMjg5ODk3NTgwNCU3ZS0xMi45ODU4Mzk4NDM3NQ== 

Cheers,

Derek.

Yes, those photos are more recent. They are still about 4 years out of date, but you are correct, the path can be seen if you zoom in.

Hi Aaron,

So exactly where was the incident? Is it easy to describe from the maps.live image? I see there's a path to the estate from the curving path - was it just off that?

Cheers,

Derek.

Can you can see the sort of curved path from the end of Shield Terrace. Those are actually tractor marks, but the path follows them. It curves left until it passes the single tree, then the path turns 90 degrees right and crosses the next field. I don't know the exact location, but it was somewhere in the second field.

I presume the local Sheriff Court will be conducting a fatal accident inquiry? That will probably reveal a lot.

I assume so, but there has been no news as yet. Our local newspaper is the Kilmarnock Standard, and there has been no further mention of it since the initial reports of the accident. The Standard will definitely cover this sort of thing, but presumably there has been no hearing as yet.

Thanks for that info, Aaron95. I see that the Kilmarnock Standard does have a web site, which I will be following.

I will have to view the maps/satellite photos at work tomorrow, as I don't use Windows at home. I fear that I may have to install it on one PC just for that purpose, if the photos are more recent than Google.

I am wondering if there are any statistics relating to ordinary members of the public falling into old mines. It must be much rarer than being struck by lightning, which is a small but not negligible risk in the UK. I can't remember another instance.

Alan

Now looking at the MSN photo. The curved path is just below the course of the railway, which would presumably have been quite solid. Waht I thought on Google was two trees now seems to be one, and its shadow.

There is something square which is discernible in the upper field, just at the lower end of the straightish path, but it does not correlate with anything on old-maps. But it does seem to be sunsiding in the middle. The strange thing is that it would have been right beside the railway, not the best place for a shaft, if indeed that is what it was.
Alan

There is a lot of data kept on disused mine accidents in the USA under the "Stay out Stay alive" campaign, see www.msha.gov. ( US Mine Safety & Health Administration). Perhaps we should do something similar here in the UK.

There was a project in 2006/7 funded by Defra & the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) that looked at disused mine entrances and how local authorities & others address the issues of people falling into them. As far as I can tell most local authorities with mines in their areas actually do very little about the issue. The report was on the defra website under the research pages, or on the CIEH website, don't know if it still is though 😞

The bottom line is that people need to be bloody careful around old mine workings.

I remember an old quote from a book about the Cornish Copper District. "Up until about the 1960's it was considered foolish to set foot anywhere on United Downs but since then a large number of shafts have been capped or fenced off".

This is the problem. You deal with the bit of the problem you can see and then everyone feels they are safe to run around and have disasterous accidents.

In my mind (obviously you can't treat all scenarios) people need to have the following mindset forced upon them. Old Mining Land is dangerous, keep your dogs on leads and only go across the land if absolutely necessary.

It won't happen as nothing can be publicly dangerous any more, so more of the same IMO.

I'm fortunate enough to live somewhere where a sensible approach to shafts is in place - the county council have long had a programme of capping off shafts easily accessible to the public with concrete railway sleepers, but they also supply sleepers to landowners wanting to sort out shafts away from accessible places. As a result, apart from a few difficult to access areas you don't often see uncapped shafts in the Peak these days. Plus, there's the advantage from the explorer's viewpoint that it's easy to lift a sleeper out to allow a shaft drop and put it back when you're done....

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