The pretty little UK town that's a dark tourism hotspot after tragedy
Michael Portillo reflected on a mining tragedy on as he travelled between Wakefield and Leeds on his BBC show Great British Railway Journeys. He visited the National Coalmining Museum for England whch is based at the Taphouse Collery just outside Wakefield.
As he got a history of UK mining from miner turned museum guide Trevor Chalkley, he was reminded of the dreadful tragedy which happened in nearby Lofthouse in 1973.
Lofthouse, located just 24 miles from Sheffield, is a tiny town which only had a population of 4,181 in the 2021 census.
Only one body was ever recovered from the devasting incident which cost seven men their lives. Trevor had been a trainee at Lofthouse when it occured and said: "That was a disaster which should never have happened.
"The problem, what we had with Lofthouse is that prior to nationalisation [of the mines], you had individual people working in the mines, or owning the mines.
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Michael Portillo reflected on the 1973 mining tragedy in Lofthouse (Image: BBC)"If you started to get into a good areas the'd keep going but it would be unchartered. And what we had at Lofthouse was they...hit some unchartered working, and obviously those [areas] were actually full of gas and dust, and in particular, water." Continuing to explain what happened he said the water rushed in and they lost seven lives in the tragedy adding: "six of those are still down there. We only managed to recover one body."
Michael then told viewers about the poignant memorial to the men, a seven-sided stone obelisk listing the names of the seven miners which stands in Wrenthorpe above the point where they were trapped five decades ago.
The men who died were Frederick Armitage, 41, Colin Barnaby, 36, Frank Billingham, 48, Sydney Brown, 36, Edward Finnegan, 40, Alan Haigh, 30 and Charles Cotton, 49, whose body was the only one recovered.
Also on the site of the colliery nowadays is another reminder of the area's mining past - a mining cart with a dedication to those who worked there.
Stating the dates the colliery was active 1873-1981 it says: "This memorial is dedicated to Lofthouse Colliery and all the men, women and boys who worked here." It also features the quote: "Loyal to the last".
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As a direct result of the incident the Mines (Precautions Against Inrushes) Regulations 1979 (PAIR), was created.
This required "an examination of records held by the Natural Environment Research Council which might be relevant to proposed workings [and] diligent enquiry into other sources of information which may be available, e.g. from geological memoirs, archives, libraries and persons with knowledge of the area and its history," before beginning work.
The disaster is also credited with helping increase the popularity of Arthur Scargill. He accompanied the rescue teams underground and was on site for six days with the relatives of the deceased.
At the enquiry he used notebooks of underground working from the 19th century retrieved from the Institute of Geological Sciences in Leeds to argue that the National Coal Board could have prevented the disaster had they acted on the information available.
Great British Railway Journeys is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
The pretty little UK town that's a dark tourism hotspot after tragedy
The pretty little UK town that's a dark tourism hotspot after tragedy
The pretty little UK town that's a dark tourism hotspot after tragedy
The pretty little UK town that's a dark tourism hotspot after tragedy
The pretty little UK town that's a dark tourism hotspot after tragedy
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