THE story of how a young family faced eviction from their home after their father was killed in the North-East's worst pit disaster, has emerged for the first time.

The family of William Green, a 34-year-old miner who died in the 1909 West Stanley Burns Pit disaster, has kept the eviction notice down the generations.

Bearing the name of pit owner JH Burns, the notice was sent on March 10, 1909, a month after the explosion killed 168 men and boys.

When William Green died he left a 27-year-old wife, Madge, and three children - a boy, Oswald, aged eight, a girl, Maggie, aged four or five and Harry, aged one.

The young family lived in a colliery house on Ramsey Street in Stanley when the pit exploded on February 16, 1909.

William's widow somehow managed to raise the money to pay for a gravestone for her dead husband at the old churchyard behind St Andrew's Church. But, just a few weeks after 200,000 people turned up to Stanley to watch the mass burials of the men, Mrs Green received the eviction notice requiring the family to be out of the house by March 24.

The Burns must have relented because the surviving family have a second letter sent on April 10 requiring the family find 4s 6d a week rent.

The historic documents are now kept by Madge Green's granddaughter Audrey Dodds, who lives in Burnopfield, a few miles from Stanley.

She said: "My grandmother died when I was 18 but she was one of the most important people in my life.

"She never spoke about the disaster but she never remarried and I know she did everything to ensure the survival of her family. She would decorate peoples' homes, bake pies for sale to the miners, everything. She ended up being a midwife in South Moor where everyone knew her and would call on her if anyone was unwell.

"My father, who wasn't quite two when his father died, talked about the disaster from time to time. He ended up being in a miners' rescue team and went to the great disaster at Easington in the 1950s. My brother has a lamp that was used in the Burns pit. We discovered later that it wasn't very safe."

A number of other stories came to light about the disaster at an Advertiser exhibition held in Stanley last month. Anne Livesey of Tantobie wrote a poem after speaking to an elderly relative, Ivy, who died recently aged 96.

The poem tells how Ivy's father, George Whitfield, worked non-stop for three days as part of the rescue team.

He would hold a lavender hanky to his mouth to protect himself against the dust. But, after he found the body of his brother, John, he could never stand the smell of lavender again.

* The Advertiser is campaigning to mark the graves of the 54 men and boys who were buried in mass burial trenches in Stanley and has raised more than £1,500 so far.

Contact Chris Webber on (01642) 513346 or send cheques made out to The Northern Echo's Stanley Pit Disaster Memorial Appeal to The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF.