Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/198

Rh for rather more than 100 yards westwards from the Sudbrook Pit, and the bottom heading from the same point, towards the point where the Great Spring had broken in, was commenced.

At 5 miles 4 chains, more than 200 yards of full-sized tunnel were put in, and about 100 yards of arch turned.

Another break-up was also started, and the brickwork commenced in it, at about 250 yards westwards from this shaft.

Very good progress was made from the Marsh Pit. By the end of the year more than 200 yards of the tunnel were completed east from this pit, and about 700 yards westwards.

From the Hill Pit about 70 yards of tunnel were completed east from the pit, and more than 400 yards westwards.

The cutting on the Monmouthshire or Welsh side of the river was commenced in March.

On the 9th February, a terrible accident happened to some men who were working at the 5 miles 4 chains pit. The men were gathering round the bottom of the pit at one o’clock (after midnight) to come up to supper; the one cage was at the bottom, and four or five men had just got into it; and the other cage was on the upper level, from which the skips were taken to the clay-crushing machine, when the banksman at the ground-level (a steady man, who had worked a considerable time at the same employment), seeming to forget the position