Remember

This had to be saved for a sunny day with blue skies it's the memorial in St Bartholomew's Churchyard in Westhoughton to the 344 men and boys who perished on the 21st December 1910. The Pretoria Pit Disaster is the worst coal mining accident to have occurred in Lancashire, and the third worst mining disaster in British history.

When I was growing up in Wingates, about three miles from the scene of the disaster this was still an event within living memory. I remember my mum's eldest sister and my grandma, speaking in hushed tones about the day of the disaster. How the women grabbed their shawls and ran along Manchester Road to the pithead. They waited with little reward, only three men were brought out alive one of whom would die a week later. Mrs Tyldesley who lived on Chorley Rd, never fully recovered from the shock of losing her husband and four sons on that fateful day.

The events, just before Christmas were etched forever in the minds of those living in the small communities in the area whose menfolk toiled in so many of the collieries which were dotted all around. Each year, just before Christmas a service is still held in the church in rememberence of the Pretoria Pit Disaster.

Inspired by the challenge for 26th Feb 'Remember'.