Today's Object of the Week is a memorial that stands as a sombre reminder of a County Durham coal mine disaster that killed 168 men.
The darkest moment in West Stanley Colliery’s history came on February 16, 1909, when a fire damp explosion exasperated by coal dust at the mine claimed the lives of 168 men. There were only 30 survivors.
A pit wheel and memorial wall near Stanley’s Chester Road commemorates the names of those who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy.
It was unveiled by the former footballer and then Newcastle United manager, Kevin Keegan, whose grandfather, Frank Keegan, was one of the 30 survivors who was subsequently involved in the rescue effort. Keegan unveiled the memorial on the 86th anniversary of the disaster.
After a minute's silence, Keegan led the community of his forebears in remembrance of a disaster that remains the most terrible in the long history of the Durham Coalfield.
He silently pulled back the velvet curtains on the plaque that explained that his grandfather was one of those who had returned underground to help with the rescue attempt. It was 86 years, nearly to the minute, that the West Stanley Colliery explosion smashed the little community apart.
Fathers, sons, brothers and uncles – nearly every street in Stanley lost a loved one in the blast.
At 3.45pm, February 16, 1909, people in Stanley heard the sound of a muffled explosion.
Shortly afterwards there was an almighty blast at the head of the West Stanley Colliery with fire and smoke shooting into the sky.
The force of the explosion was so strong that it blew the windows out of the workers’ terraced houses nearby.
Nearly 200 men and boys had been working up to 1,000ft underground – and the explosion struck terror into the hearts of their loved ones, who rushed to the scene.
Hundreds, and then thousands, gathered at the pit head for news of the trapped miners.
The ignition of coal dust in the air created a huge ball of fire that tore through the seams and burned, blew up and poisoned 168 pit men with carbon monoxide.
There was no trained rescue team and no one knew where the injured workers were, but a rescue party was formed and, 14 hours later, the first of 30 survivors was brought from the pit.
A group of men who became known as the 'Lucky Seven', had been told they could leave the workplace early and stepped out of the pit cage as the explosion ripped through the mine.
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They were covered in slime and soot but walked from the carnage unscathed.
The disaster was the worst in the history of the Durham coalfield. Nearly every street in the town had a victim or suffered one way or another.
More than 115 years after the catastrophe, the legacy of the West Stanley Pit Disaster has left deep scars in the north Durham community and is intrinsically ingrained on the community’s collective consciousness.
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