OVERGROWN, windswept and hidden from view, the graves of the 168 men and boys of the North-East's biggest-ever pit disaster lay almost forgotten.

Forgotten until the day a few locals took some photographs to the church yard and worked out where the men they'd heard about all their lives, their own forebears, actually lay.

That scene - a few men, knee-high in grass in the remote corner of St Andrew's Churchyard in Stanley - was very different to the ones they carried in their photographs. The grim, haunting images of 200,000 pit folk huddled around three large trenches filled with coffins were no ordinary guide.

The emotional strength of those pictures and the memory of the men and boys who died in the West Stanley Burns Pit disaster in 1909 resonate in Stanley.

And now The Advertiser and our sister paper, The Northern Echo, have launched a campaign to have the graves in the three large trenches marked for the first time.

Derrick Lait, chairman of the Durham Mining Museum, is prepared to back any campaign and church vicar, Reverend Austin Johnston, has himself won the backing of the Church of England to have the graves marked at least before the 100th anniversary in 2009. The custodian of the land, Derwentside District Council, has vowed to contribute to the scheme.

Not that the events of that day have ever been forgotten in Stanley.

The story, passed down the generations, goes as follows. At 3.40pm a build-up of gas ignited. Flames shot into the air. The 168 men and boys were choked, burned and crushed to death. The explosion was such that windows were blown out in the streets around. Families gathered at the pit-head in a desperate vigil for news.

On the day of the first funerals, up to 200,000 mining people from across the North-East, crammed into Stanley. The crowds were so dense that at one point the cortege was forced to stop.

The fact that those stories have echoed down the years was proved by community leaders, including Councillor Michael Brough and local historian Michael Bailey, who has since died. They raised £12,700 to have a new memorial bearing the names of each of the 168 men and boys erected in the town back in February 16, 1995 - anniversary day.

Football legend Kevin Keegan attended. His grandfather Frank had been a hero of the day, returning underground in a rescue attempt. Mr Keegan said: "It is only right that there should be a memorial. People should respect it. I know the older people will. I ask the children to respect it." He needn't have worried. The memorial has never been vandalised.

The new memorial was a dream fulfilled - but still the graves lie unmarked.

"We had plans to mark the graves at the time," remembered Coun Brough. "We thought about archways or coloured tiles depicting the old scenes from the disaster. We also wanted to pay to have the graves themselves maintained, but we just didn't have enough money. In the end we thought it was better to have the memorial where people could see it."

Local historian Jack Hair's family was touched by the disaster. A treasured teenage son of his great-grandfather, named James Lambert, perished. He said: "We've contemplated having the graves marked for some time. It would be hard because the page bearing the men's names has been torn from the church archives. It would be great to have young people involved in getting the graves marked. It is their history too."

Maybe Mr Hair's and others wish to have the graves of the men of the pit disaster finally marked is, more than 90 years on, about to be granted. But whatever happens one thing is certain. They will never be forgotten