Accident Reports and Registers

The accident registers of the company consist of five separate series. The first four relate to the Traffic, Engineering, Bridgewater and Railway departments. The fifth series overlaps these as it starts in 1945 and is almost complete up to 1968. The final series consists of at least 20 volumes that detail accidents in the registers of each department. Only three of the registers are extant and it is likely that more than twenty volumes existed at one stage. Two volumes of indexes to the registers survive.

Besides the registers there are cash books that detail the monies paid to employees of the company. Injured workers were compensated by the company and paid weekly. From these books it is possible to see how long they were ill, how much they were paid and when they returned to work. Occasionally they never did and are noted as dying. These compensation books are cross referenced to the accident registers which give details of the injury, their age and occupation. Sometimes the company give details of accidents that happened to people who did not work for the company. In these cases they are members of the public injured while on company property.

Towards the end of the 1950s reports of individual accidents are filed in monthly order. Where the accident was serious, the Factory Inspector filed reports for the company to act upon. There are also reports of accidents deemed non reportable.