One Sunday evening, the 14th May 1871, Dan Strang left his home on Babylon Lane, Heath Charnock and headed down Nick Hilton’s lane to walk the two miles to work at the Yarrow Reservoir in Rivington.
It was the last time Ann and his children would see him alive. He put his coat and stick in the cabin and went to check the puddle gutter on Turner’s embankment as usual.
Daniel was a Scot, born in 1832 the son of a railway labourer and the family travelled the length and breadth of the country following work on the great railway contracts before Dan and his brother found work in Cheshire. Then eighteen years of age, he was driving a wagon on rails at Birkenhead New Dock works, when he slipped and a wagon wheel took off his leg above the ankle. He was not expected to survive, but his brother being clerk to the Docks secretary, sought medical attention which saved his life, and saw him back labouring on the docks.
Daniel ‘married’ Ann Watson, and they remained near the docks in Birkenhead, through the thick of the 1860’s riots, until the dock contract was complete in 1865. Next stop, Hull, where the Western Dock was under construction, but by 1869 Dan was no longer a labourer, he was a ‘fireman’ (tending a engine) and they were living in a pit cottage in Ashton in Makerfield.
On the 15th May 1871, shortly after sunrise, Thomas King, horsekeeper to Mr Monk at the Yarrow works, noticed the pumping engine had stopped, but saw Dan’s coat and walking stick were in the cabin. He went up the embankment but couldn’t find Strang, so checked the puddle trench (at that point the trench was approximately 115 feet in depth and four feet deep with water. He noted several broken and displaced planks which looked to be the result of a heavy fall. With the help of Edward Dunn, and a grappling iron, Dan’s body was recovered and taken to the Black-a-Moors Head Inn.
An inquest was held on the 17th May by the county coroner, and the verdict was recorded as accidental death. It was conjectured that Dan, an amputee with a wooden leg, without using his walking stick, had slipped on a plank of the wooden scaffold, falling into the puddle trench which was deep with water. His character was described as sober, attentive and agreeable.
Dan Strang was buried at Rivington Church on the 18th May 1871. Ann was pregnant with their sixth child, Margaret, who was born on All Saints Day. Ann moved her family back to Northumberland, before the family emigrated to Pennsylvania, where their descendants live today.
Thanks to Janette Cordwell, Neil Rickaby of Bolton Web Design and Roy Davies of Horwich Heritage.
Horwich Heritage & United Utilities Summer 2024.
