South Yorkshire Times May 5, 1951

Car in Front Garden

Lucky Seven at Mexborough

The Dobsons and the Brookes had unexpected visitors on Sunday morning. They arrived, all seven of them, in a car, and came in via the garden walls.

When they left some time later, they also left the car and they left a good deal of brickwork and vegetation scattered about the gardens.

The car crashed into the walls of Nos. 151 and 149, Adwick Road, Mexborough, at 12-30 a.m. on Sunday. At 151, Mr. and Mrs. H. Dobson were still up. At 149 Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Brookes were asleep.

Despite the extensive damage done to gardens and car, none of the seven men was seriously hurt. The driver was Jack Travers (30), miner, of Schofield  Street Mexborough, and the others, all Mexborough men, were:

Michael Wood (38), bulldozer driver, of Wood Street; and miners Hugh Daly (37) and Daniel Canning (24), of the Miners’ Hostel, Adwick Road, Michael O’Brien (24) and Walter’ Rowe (22), of Park Road; and William Edwards (27) of Windhill Crescent.

The car was coming from the direction of Goldthorpe. It knocked down about six yards of wall, four feet high, and scraped a banking of earth behind the wall level with the road. Two gates and gateposts were torn up, and some yards of hedging and flowers. The car ended on its side in the garden of No. 149, with the wheels out of position, the body and chassis battered, the bonnet in the garden next door—and all the windows but one undamaged.

Although the driver was unconscious when help reached him, he quickly revived and was taken to Montagu Hospital with the others for treatment for shock and bruises. One of the men was fortunate not to have his legs broken. They were doubled underneath one of the seats, while he was flung clear of the car. “It’s a miracle how they escaped being killed,” said Mrs. Brookes.

Mrs. Miriam Dobson was first out, and helped the men. She helped at Montagu Hospital with the casualties from the rail accident at Wath some years ago, and served stimulants to Passengers after the recent derailment at Doncaster. Only a few hours before the car arrived, her husband had been teasingly suggesting that he should arrange a crash in the front garden !