A CAMPAIGN to mark the graves of those who died in the area's worst mining disaster has taken a major step forward.

An explosion in 1909 at the West Stanley Colliery, in Stanley, known as Burns Pit, claimed the lives of 168 men and boys.

Fifty-four victims were buried side-by-side in unmarked trenches, in the graveyard of St Andrew's Church, Stanley.

The Advertiser launched a campaign in their memory and a commemorative stone will now be erected. It will be unveiled in February next year, on the 96th anniversary of the accident.

More than £2,500 has been raised in donations by readers and residents. The fund received a boost this week with a £1,000 grant from the National Union of Mineworkers.

A Stanley Burns Pit Disaster Memorial Committee has been set up to administer the fund.

A committee spokesman said: "We are in a position now to finally mark the graves of these men and boys killed in this terrible tragedy.

"There are other memorials in the town already and we do not want to take anything away from them.

"But there has never been anything at the gravesides of these 54 people and they deserve to be remembered."

The committee includes vicar of St Andrew's Austin Johnston, parochial church councillor Jean Carelton, county councillor Edna Hunter and chairman of Stanley History Association Jack Hair.

The campaign to erect a memorial was led by local amateur historian Bob Drake, who spent a year checking records to identify, for the first time, who is buried in the mass grave behind St Andrew's Church.

The committee will make a final decision about the design of the memorial stone later this year.

Craftsman Billy Johnstone, of Murton, near Seaham, has produced limited edition plates to commemorate the disaster.

They are available for £20 each from his stall in Durham City Indoor Market and at the card shop at Stanley Indoor Market. If all 100 are sold, it will swell the campaign coffers by a further £500.

Anyone with any information about the disaster or who wishes to donate to the campaign fund is asked to call reporter Chris Webber on (01642) 675678