Dreams and weird rappings.
Wife’s presentiment.
Curious incidents precede Sheffield tragedy.
A series of mysterious “warnings,” the terrible dreams of a husband, and his wife’s presentiment – on the morning of the fatal day – that she would never see him alive again, preceded a tragedy at the timberyard of Messrs. Charles Black and Sons, Ltd., Sheffield, yesterday, when Andrew Wells (55), a labourer employed there, was killed instantly through the collapse of the overhead track along which a heavy electric crane was conveying a tree trunk, weighing from 4 1/2 to 5 tons.
He and another man were controlling the crane when, without warning, the track gave way, and the crane dropped, but was brought to a standstill by timbers underneath. Wells was walking beneath the tree when it fell, crushing him terribly. His fellow workman escaped injury. The Sheffield police ambulance conveyed the man to the Sheffield Royal Hospital but it could only be confirmed that life was extinct.
In an interview with a “Sheffield Telegraph” reporter, Mr Charles Black, the head of the firm, said: “The track gave way, causing the crane to let down its load which crushed Wells. Another man who was with him was clear. About 40 men are employed in the yard.”
Mr Wells and his wife formerly lived in Derby – his birthplace – where they first met. On the outbreak of war he worked in a Derby munition factory. For the last eleven years he had been employed at the timber yard of Messrs. Black.
To a representative of the “Sheffield Telegraph” Mrs Wells related the grim series of happenings which have seared themselves on her memory. “During the past three weeks,” she said, “my husband has had frightful dreams of accidents and sudden deaths. He would waken me up at dead of night with his long drawn out screams of terror. Last night he had a particularly terrible dream from which I woke him up. I begged of him not to go to work to-day, for something seemed to tell me that he would have an accident.
“My daughter, Lilian, who is 10, has heard a distinct knock on the door at about 5 o’clock at night – about the time of the accident – for the last three nights. She opened the door immediately, but there was nobody there. Small boys occasionally knock on the door and run away, but even then the coincidence is remarkable. The knock, too, had a peculiar sound, altogether different from that made by an ordinary rap.”
Wells celebrated his birthday only three days ago. He leaves a daughter, Nellie, aged 11, Lilian, aged 10, and a seven weeks’ old baby.
It is a curious fact that there has been no serious accident treated at the Sheffield Royal Hospital for the last two days, and this, it is stated, always occurs before a fatal accident.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 26th March 1930.