THE untold tale of one woman's bravery and compassion during the North-East's worst mining disaster has come to light.

On a fateful day in 1909, a build-up of gas ignited in a huge ball of fire at West Stanley Burns Pit, in Stanley, County Durham.

Flames shot into the air and 168 men and boys were burned, choked and crushed to death in the carnage.

The explosion was so ferocious that windows were blown out in the surrounding streets.

While families gathered at the pit-head, desperately waiting for news, one heroic woman calmly stepped forward and volunteered to go down in search of the dead.

Susanna Todd, 56, the town midwife, made the terrifying journey into the pit with a rescue party. She was the only woman to enter the mine on that day.

Susan Todd Marsh, 70, of Birtley, Tyne and Wear, who is named after her great-grandmother, described the story that has become part of her family folklore.

"Susanna was the woman people called when a baby was on the way and was also there at the end of life - she would go round and dress the dead, ready to be seen by their families.

"That day, she was called for and actually went down the pit. It must have been dreadful for her because she knew an awful lot of the men.

"She picked up the bodies and tried to straighten them out before they were taken up to the top.

"She was a very strong woman and she thought nothing of toddling around in the black of night to help people. She was very well thought of in Stanley."

The disaster shook the region's mining community. On the day of the funerals, about 200,000 people visited the small town.

The corteges carrying the coffins were often unable to move, at least six funerals took place at any one time all day and ambulances struggled to reach the women and children who fainted.

The full story of her heroism will form part of the exhibition staged by The Northern Echo at Stanley's Lamplight Arts Centre today from 10am to 6pm.