Surrey Mirror - October 1905
Death in a Stone Quarry
A very singular accident, unfortunately attended with fatal results, happened on the Hearth Stone Quarries, Colley Hill, Reigate, on Wednesday morning. Henry Ebenezer Stewart, aged 49, a foreman carpenter in the employ of Mr. George Taylor, Margery, Kingswood, was, on Wednesday morning, working in company with a labourer named Isaac Dudley, on the quarries mentioned. The two men were carrying a bag of stone weighing about 1 cwt., from the Quarries to the bottom of the road, where it was to be placed in a cart and conveyed to the Railway Station. The stone was lifted onto a trolley, which runs on metals from the mouth of the quarries to Colley wood. When they had covered about three parts of the distance the trolley left the rails. As a consequence Dudley was thrown in the hedge, deceased alighting on the road, the fall rendering him unconscious. Assistance was at once sent for, and Dr. Ogle arrived on the spot as quickly as possible, but not before the poor man had succumbed to his injuries. There were several wounds on the side of his head, and it was thought the base of his skull was fractured. There were signs of deceased having bled a great deal from the mouth and ears, which indicated the internal organs were ruptured. Deceased lived at Clearholme, Colley, Reigate, and appeared in his usual health immediately before the accident.
At the Coroner's inquest on Friday, 1st November, the following observations were made, and reported (Surrey Mirror, 3rd November, 1905): "By trade [the deceased] was a carpenter, but at this time acted as a building manager."
One of the jurors commented: "They were going very fast. There was no brake on the trolley. Had there been one, perhaps the accident might have been avoided."
Mr. Hale, Mr. Taylor's Solicitor, said: "The trolley was not intended to go down the decline. Deceased and witness were not authorised to use the trolley at the time."
In commenting on the accident, the Coroner observed: "It is a most extraordinary course to start this trolley and without any means of stopping it ride to perdition"
The deceased had been observed: "...trying to brake the trolley by dragging his foot along the ground. The rails at that point were rough, and not perfectly straight."
A unanimous verdict of accidental death was reached, with a rider added, on the suggestion of the Foreman, that: "In future this truck be not used anywhere without a brake."