Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 30 March 1912

Righteous Scenes at Cadeby

Ugly Rushes by Crowd 8000 strong

Good Work by Police.

There was a further hostile demonstration against the workmen at the Cadeby pit at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, but nothing serious occurred, although the crowd had increased fourfold since the previous day and was reinforced by batches from the surrounding district, notably from Wath, Goldthorpe and Whinney Hill. In Denaby Main proper, all was quiet as the grave, and the Denaby Main pit silent and inactive as a cemetery.

Everyone flocked to New Conisbrough, and the crowd was thickest in the neighbourhood of the Drill Hall and the Denaby Main Hotel.

Shortly before 2 o’clock there were perhaps 2,000 men and women assembled awaiting the return of the men whose arrival at the surface was signalled by the whirling of the pulleys. But in a few minutes, at least 6,000 more people sprang from apparently nowhere. They poured out of the side streaks in clouds, and there was a remarkable number of women carrying babies and with other infants dragging at their skirts.

The general behaviour of the crowd while waiting was good, and their attitude good humoured. One rosy and not uncomley woman came through the crowd dragging a little bacon box wheelbarrow laden with rough coal which she had been picking. She was a target for a lot of good humour wit as the crowd made way for her, and a wag earnestly advised her to put a drag on going down the plane. She laughed; she could afford to.

Another woman anticipating rough work, and solicitous for the safety of her boy came busting through the crowd leading him home by the ear. “What do you think of her?” He asked the crowd, indicating his mother with the cheeky jerk of the thumb, “I look like getting six months, don’t I.” And the urchin was rustled on amid roars of laughter.

Even when the men began to appear on the gangway leading from the pit, the crowd could not be serious. The first few they allowed to go through with a joke and a laugh, and it seemed as if Inspector Fairbairn and his few police who were scattered among the crowd were going to be let off lightly.

But at last a man who was among the crowd rushed in and pushed him. That opened the ball. There was a groan and a rush, and the police were at once bustled by the swaying crowd, which completely move down as far as the Denaby Main Hotel, where some of the workers were rushed up the site streets. The police kept their heads, and by the use of admirable self-restraint, managed to retain control of the crowd. The batons were not used, and the force managed to keep a ring round the men were objected to until at last the throng gave way and the men were allowed to go to their homes.

This occurred three times and though this situation look very serious now and then no violence took place, though one or two of the ringleaders got soundly cuffed in the melee. In half an hour or so, the excitement was over and the crowd gradually dispersed. In the meantime men could be seen leaving the pit by way of the Dearne Valley Railway and making their way home by the Pastures, rather than face the crowd.

In justice to the demonstrators, it should be said that they did not attempt to interfere with officials and with men who had obviously gone down to repair the roads, and of the 30 or 40 men who faced the music, only three or four were objected to. The police at Denaby have been considerably reinforced since the occurrences of Tuesday and Wednesday, for it was obvious that if the crowd really meant business there might have been serious rioting.

The management retain their emphatic denial that coal is being drawn, and if any coal is being got all, it is work necessary to the restoration of the roads and roof, which are in extremely bad condition.

Mr Charles Bury, manager of the mine, states that the repair remains of the mine calls for the constant employment of 750 men, and there are not more than 120 men now working.