MORE stories have emerged about the men and boys who died in the region's worst mining disaster.

The tales emerged after 11 people contacted The Northern Echo to inquire about commemorative plates in memory of the 1909 Stanley Burns Pit Disaster.

The Northern Echo is campaigning with the newly formed Stanley Pit Memorial Committee to mark the graves of some of the 168 victims of the disaster who lie side-by-side in mass, unmarked burial trenches.

Councillor Peter Thompson, of Durham County Council's Gilesgate ward, offered to give away through The Northern Echo two of the six £20 commemorative plates he bought to support the campaign.

One of the plates was given to Grace Robinson, of Chester-le-Street. The retired headmistress said her 15-year-old uncle, Charles Readman, died in the disaster.

He was wounded in the explosion, but bravely told his comrades to leave him and escape. One man, Matthew Elliot, began to leave but could not leave Charles behind.

He ran back to help, but knocked himself out. Rescuers thought Mr Elliot was dead and took his blackened body to the surface, where he lay with corpses until someone noticed he still had a pulse. He lived until 1952.

Mrs Robinson said: "Charles was originally from Yarm, near Stockton, but he was orphaned along with my mother and their two sisters.

"All of them were scattered across the North-East at relatives and friends, and he went to stay in Stanley. He did not get much of a life.

"My mother, Grace, was only 12 at the time of the disaster, but she never forgot it. She came down from South Shields to the funerals and said there was this great crowd.

"She never forgot the wailing and people fainting everywhere. She hated coalmines all of her life after that, but her husband and son, my brother, both worked down the pit."

The other plate was given to Mary Whitworth, of Stanley, County Durham. Her grandfather swapped shifts with one of his brothers to attend a wedding and survived. His brothers, George and Thomas Booth, were both killed. One could only be identified by a carving in his leather belt.

Both the Booth brothers and Charles Readman lie in the unmarked burial trenches. To find out more about the campaign, call Chris Webber on (01642) 675678.