Hi Adam ? any bod' I.m being asked 'bout a death near mining museum / temple mine, 1977 - 1979.
Anyone?
Ta O. G.

Ask our friend Julie, I believe that she attended on the DCRO call out.

Perhaps this was the accident in Hopping Pipe. I extract the relevant sentence from my book on these mines (it is progressing steadily):
On 26 August 1976, a falling rock about ten tons weight instantly killed Leslie Wheeler, aged 16, who lived in a Social Services home at Wolverhampton. He was in a party of eight children being taken underground to collect mineral specimens.

Wasnt there a more recent one too

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Wasn't there a fatality at Royal Mine in the early 1990's? That was the one that Julie attended with DCRO,

The other fatality in the Hopping system was on 2 July 1992 to Stephen Goodwin of Ripley, aged 23. A novice caver, he dislodged rocks when crawling through a narrow crevice and he was crushed. There was also a 12 year old kid killed in Fluor Spar Cavern when it was a show cave - the only known fatality to a tourist in any of the local show caves. He fell down a shallow shaft. No other mine system has such a terrible record of accidents to visitors.

I nearly got killed when surveying the system in 1970. I stood on top of a massive slab of rock at the top of a 20 ft slope down to the west end of Chaos Cavern. The slab, which weighed many tons, promptly slid down the slope. Not being Indiana Jones, I promptly fell off and got a bad cut on my head. But at least I was able to stagger out of the mine unaided (I was by myself at the time). As Trevor Ford aptly remarked, the Hopping System is a landslide in slow motion.

Thank you all, not a morbid curiosity, a question from a local resident prompted this thread. all yours postmaster!.
Owd Git.

Hi, i was one of the children in the cave at the time of leslies unfortunate death. We were supposed to have explored the caves for hours but were only there for 15 minutes or less before the accident.

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I was on the Stephen Goodwin call out with Julie, he had gone up a slope on his back to pull himself through to what he thought was the way on to Royal Mine.He reached up into the roof and the rock he was pulling on dropped across him.
I agree with historytrog that it a wonder that Upperwood road stays up at all.

Should be of interest, anyone know anything about the placing of the memorial plaque?

🔗99395[linkphoto]99395[/linkphoto][/link]

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Yes this was the route they took into the mine and DCA walled it up and placed the plaque on at the request of the Goodwin family.
This was the Jacobs Cavern area of the Speedwell,Teerbreaches Royal system look up PDMHS bulletin Vol 5 number 4.

Thanks for this, interesting stuff

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Perhaps this was the accident in Hopping Pipe. I extract the relevant sentence from my book on these mines (it is progressing steadily):
On 26 August 1976, a falling rock about ten tons weight instantly killed Leslie Wheeler, aged 16, who lived in a Social Services home at Wolverhampton. He was in a party of eight children being taken underground to collect mineral specimens.

We were extracting the Wills Founder engine at that time and were called down to Matlock Bath to lift the rock off this lad's head.
It appeared he had been chipping at the base of a large lump of spar and it just fell over on him.
There's a moral there for specimen hunters..........

Its worth mentioning that there has been two other fatalities in the area, at Ball Eye mines and Jug Holes.

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I recall the Hopping pipe incident, I was with a bunch of cavers in the nearest cottage to the entrance on Upperwood road, was unaware of it until after the event!.
IIRC, the Ball Eye event was a multiple fatality to a group of scouts caused by exhaust gas accumulation from the quarry above - this is the reason why access is still delicate.
Don't recall the Jug Holes incident.

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Roy there have been many lost people in Jugholes , I was on two call outs where one kid had a kitchen culinder on his head but no fatality.
I think you may be thinking about a dig at Pikehall where another guy from Ripley had a slab fall on him and died.

Can anyone supply details of another accident at Upperwood. This was in 1964 when a woman named Marlyn Atkin, a potholer from Breaston in Derbyshire, suffered back injuries when she fell 40 feet down a mine shaft at Upperwood. I have only a brief newspaper account of this and would like to know the precise location.

There was also a fatality at Ball Eye in the early 1960s when George Keeling of Derby, a mine explorer, fell down a shaft at the Hermitage.

For incidents that far back in time, I'd suggest contacting DCRO and seeing what they've got in their records? I do remember at the anniversary do a few years back they had a complete list of callouts on several posters.

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Roy there have been many lost people in Jugholes , I was on two call outs where one kid had a kitchen culinder on his head but no fatality.
I think you may be thinking about a dig at Pikehall where another guy from Ripley had a slab fall on him and died.

I agree.
I saw this somewhere and it may have been erroneously written about as it sounds like the incident described.

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Hello.. leslie wheeler may be my partners uncle. We are doing a family tree, the only family member who would be able to give us information was Leslie's mum who unfortunately passed away, she always told my partner leslie died instantly at aged 16 but never told him anything else. If anyone could possibly give us some information and shed some light on this we would be much my grateful. Thanks x