The man who was working alongside tree surgeon Martin Hanks when he died in a freak accident has spoken for the first time about the tragedy.
Close friend Charlie Batten, 31, had been invited by 34-year-old Mr Hanks, a married father-of-two, to join him on a week-long job, cutting back a decaying beech tree in the former All Hallows Church in High Hoyland, near Barnsley.
Earlier this week a coroner concluded at Mr Hanks’s inquest in Barnsley that his death had been a tragic accident. He died in April after he was struck on the head by a falling branch.
Mr Batten, of Holmfirth, said he had been present at the inquest for all three days.
Afterwards he said: “It was Martin’s job, I was a sub-contractor, and there were three of us working on the tree which was in very poor health and getting to an age when it had started shedding branches.
“We’d had a really good day the first day but it is an extremely dangerous job and what happened is just a tragic accident.
“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We weren’t doing anything different to what we did any other day.
“There were three of us, Martin, myself and Myles Greenwood, and we were wholly trained up in what we did. We had all worked very closely with each other for six or seven years.”
READ MORE: Martin Hanks inquest: death of Thurstonland tree surgeon was accidental
Mr Hanks, of Thurstonland, left a wife, Emma, and two young children, four-year-old Lucca and one-year-old Esme.
Friends have raised thousands of pounds in aid of the family and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance after 40 of them rode to Scarborough and back on a sponsored bike ride.
Richard Billington, landlord of the Rose and Crown pub in Thurstonland, paid tribute to Mr Hanks and said: “I had known him for three or four years.
“He was a great lad and full of life. He could be the life and soul at a party. He would come in two or three times a week.
“It’s a terrible tragedy especially when it happens to someone so young.”
The Health and Safety Executive is carrying out a investigation into the cause of the accident.
