I had two accidents while working there, each could have been quite serious but luck must have been with me. On the first occasion I was trying to replace a belt on a wheel which was about twenty feet from the floor, of course I should have stopped the shaft from revolving but it was much quicker and easier to do it in motion which I had done many times before by just slipping up a ladder and guiding it on, but this time things went wrong and my hand got caught between the belt and the wheel, fortunately it was a small wheel and therefore a slow belt and also my sleeves were rolled up which caused the belt to slip a little taking strips of skin with it. My shouts were heard by our lorry driver who dashed in from outside and had the presence of mind to hurl himself at the belt, forcing it off the lower wheel just as I was bout to become a ‘Catherine’ wheel around the shaft. Another few seconds and ….. Amen.
Anyway I staggered own the ladder hanging on with my good hand with blood streaming from the other; they said I looked a sight. They really thought my forearm and the hand was in shreds (one of the girls fainted). Obviously it looked worse than it actually was and my wrist wasn’t broken but badly sprained. I wore a leather strap for a year.
My second accident was when I fell off our milk lorry, first let me describe this car to you. It had solid tyres, a flat wooden top with iron stanchions inserted around the sides through which chains were threaded; this was to keep the milk churns from falling off. Not only was it used for collecting milk, but for all the firms many needs which included fetching coal from Marazion station. This was for a stationary steam engine which supplied power for the factory plus ground the farmers’ corn (Wheat, Barley, Oats) for their cattle. So off we went on the ‘Graveyard’ (this was my nickname for the lorry for it did look very much like some of the tombs of that era) the engine man sat with the driver and the youngster (me) rode on the lorry, as this was the second trip for coal I found the coal dust a nuisance so I stood up with my back against the cab and holding the long shaft of a shovel, all went well until we took a sharp turn at the station entrance, that is the lorry did , but I didn’t, for apparently I did a graceful backward dive onto the road. I don’t know exactly what happened for I was unconscious, I couldn’t have fallen on to my head but by the size of the lump I certainly gave it a whack. According to my pals I came round after a while so they loaded the lorry, drove it back to the factory and discharger the coal, then the driver took me and my bike home to Rosemorran, Gulval where we had just shifted from Ludgvan. No one thought of doctors or ambulances in those days.