Geraldo
if you got to this website:
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/and put in the word Privett, the site will take you to an OS map of that village complete with the railway tunnel. If you go slightly north, to the northern portal of the tunnel you will see the name "Rail Way Cottages"
Another clue, maybe from an account of the death of a man called George Brown who together with a fellow workman, called James Owen, were both working on a shaft digging the tunnel when it collapsed, spilling debris into the pit where they were working from.
The story of the collapse of the shaft and subsequent rescue of Owen was reported in the Hampshire Advertiser & Hampshire Chronicle, in January 1899. In these reports, the foreman, a Mr. Stevens lives in one of the specially erected huts near at hand, so they may well have been in Privett itself. Anyway read the reports, they are very graphic:
SINGULAR AND FATAL ACCIDENT IN HAMPSHIRE .
The Hampshire Advertiser Wednesday, January 25, 1899; 19th Century British Library newspapers
Early on Saturday morning an accident occurred on the new Meon Valley Railway, at Privett resulting in the death of two men named as James Owen (married with two children) and an Army Reserve man named Brown, working for Messrs Relf and Son, contractors. They were engaged in a shaft hole for a tunnel, 40 ft deep and 12 ft. square, when without warning, the sides fell in. The shaft hole is near Basing Park, the residence of Mr. W. G. Nicholson, M.P. for East Hants. Owen leaves a widow and two children.
On Monday morning however, Owen was recovered from the shaft alive, but his fellow worker died on Saturday. At the time of the collapse, Owen fortunately escaped injury from the falls of earth. On Saturday he heard men above working to rescue him and climbed up the cross pieces of timber to a height of 20 feet. When rescuers reached him yesterday afternoon he was uninjured, though suffering much from exhaustion after his 53 hours of imprisonment. His wife and children who had abandoned all hope were overcome by news of his safety. The search parties are working with renewed hop to find the other entombed man, Brown.
Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle etc Saturday, January 28, 1899Meon Valley Disaster: A fatal Fall of Death: Workman’s Marvellous Escape!
The tunnel is 1,056 yards long, and the central shaft on which Owen and Brown were working lies immediately behind the church at Privett, and only a short distance from the residence of Mr. W. Nicholson, M.P., at Basing Park. It being a very rough night, only four men turned up at their work, and while Owen and Brown descended the shaft the other two remained on top, one being a banks man, who looks after the working of the crane, and the other being the crane driver. On discovering the shaft having collapsed, the banks man called out for help and Constable Gray, Hampshire Constabulary went to the spot. It was apparent that immediate relief was impossible, owing to the amount of earth having fallen into the shaft estimated at some 30 tons.
Mr. Stevens, the foreman, lives in one of the specially erected huts near at hand, and soon he started the night-gangs of the other shafts onto the rescue effort.
The SURVIVOR’s THRILLING STORY
Owen experienced a miraculous escape from death, but he appeared little the worse for his imprisonment of sixty hours, and on reaching the surface was able to walk to his home, a distance of some three miles. He states that when the staging in the pit showed signs of giving way, his mate Brown and he got into their bucket at the bottom of the shaft and shouted to the bank-man to haul them up. The weather being very boisterous, and he concludes that owing to the high wind their cries were not heard at first by the man at the top of the shaft. Presently the earth began to fall in, carrying away the struts and imprisoning both men at the bottom of the deep pit. The struts fell clear of Owen, who remained unhurt under the pile of timber, but unfortunately Brown was jammed fast by the legs, a circumstance which rendered his escape impossible. When the rescuers reached Own he had made his way upwards with the aid of his pocket knife only, cutting through about 25 feet of debris. In accomplishing this task he cut through four planks of wood right through the centre. Owen states that Brown spoke to him last on Saturday, when he wished him “good bye”, and said he was dying fast. He asked that his comrade to convey a loving message to his sister.
THE SURVIVOR at the INQUEST
The County Coroner (Mr. Edgar Noble) held an inquest at Privett on Thursday touching the death of George Brown, 29. The survivor gave a thrilling account of his awful experience in the shaft from Friday night until Monday morning, and described the manner in which he worked his way to the top through tons of earth with the aid of a small penknife. The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death”, and exonerated every one from blame.
Tom
