Figure 1.--This peiod postcard was a print of a painting commissioned for the disaster's centenary. I thought that it might have copywrite issues so I have included a part reproduction of a postcard made in 1910. The card was made to raise money for the Mayor of Bolton's Charity appeal to help the berieved families.

Mine work could could be very hazardous on a normal day. And from time to time there were mine accidents in which there were fatalities which included boy miners. One of Britiain's worst mining disasters occured at the Pretoria pit in Lancashire (December 21, 1910). There were 344 miners killed that morning. Some of these were boys. There were three survivors. An adult miners and two boys. The boys were called William Davenport who was 13 years old and 16 year old Joseph Staveley. The accident happened at 7:50 in the morning. It is believed that there had been a build up of gas after the previous day's roof collapse. The gas was possiblely ignited when the mechanism for hauling full trucks of coal was switched on. Many of the boys working in haulage died in the explosion and others died from carbon monoxide fumes. The jobs the boy's did were as follows: Haulage.= 24 boys were so employed. This is a job done by a boy who works on the haulage system Lasher-on =17 Boys attach a chain to tubs and then to the haulage rope. Datallier = 3 A day worker who does not work with coal. Drawer = 1 A job imvolving pushing full tubs of coal to the haulage system and bringing back the empty tubs It was the first day of work for one I3 year old boy who perished in accident. The boys were aged from 13 to 19 Afterwards, a cause of discontent was the mine owner's decision to put the compensation money into a trust fund to provide long term income for the bereaved families rather than making one lump sum compensation payments. There is a memorial service each year to remember this terrible mining disaster.

William Fergusson

Created: 2:56 AM 1/26/2011
Last updated: 9:38 PM 2/5/2011