Hartley Pit Disaster Memorial, Northumberland. Dec 08.

[Sabtr]

Excellent! Any input to do with this thread is more than welcome.

 

[smileysal]

Cheers Sausage, for putting this up, and for the links too. It makes very sobering reading, especially when you see the ages of the men working there who lost their lives.

Thank you

Sal

 

[Sabtr]

Cheers Sausage, for putting this up, and for the links too. It makes very sobering reading, especially when you see the ages of the men working there who lost their lives.

Thank you

Sal

I should have gone to the trouble of taking some pics of a memorial grave at Earsdaon churchyard. The reading on the central column says it all smileysal. Next time I'm that way I'll get the pics.

 

[Melvin Faust]

I have some photos of the memorial taken on a recent visit to Earsdon churchyard. I can post them here if it's OK with you Sausage.

I didn't realise the actual site of the disaster was marked too - I thought the Earsdon monument was the only memorial of it. The old graveyard there contains a number of gravestones in memory of individuals who died in mining accidents and is a must visit for anyone interested in the mining history of the area

 

[tarboat]

Hartley was such a terrible disaster. The book on the subject is a sobering read. The present day site is so incongruous - I just didn't expect it to be so nondescript.

 

[scammell23]

I have HMC bricks in my garden - Hartley Main Colliery brickworks

 

[Sabtr]

Melvin - please do add to this thread. To be honest I should have taken pics of Earsdon graveyard myself.

There are etchings somewhere of the actual burials taking place at Earsdon.

tarboat - I have read the book on the disaster in full. Plans of how the bodies were laid out below ground and the detailed coroners report make sobering reading.

 

[Wile-E]

There are etchings somewhere of the actual burials taking place at Earsdon.

dunno what it dates back to, but there's a nice sketch hanging in mums house of the pit, have to try and get a photo of it if i remember on Friday when I'm over there.

 

[Sabtr]

dunno what it dates back to, but there's a nice sketch hanging in mums house of the pit, have to try and get a photo of it if i remember on Friday when I'm over there.

Excellent mate. It would be nice to give folk an idea of what it was like in the North East all those years ago. Grim comes to mind!

 

[Melvin Faust]

Hartley Pit Disaster - Earsdon Churchyard Memorial

Some photos I took recently of the memorial in Earsdon Churchyard

View of the memorial on approach from the church. The inscriptions should be readable if you zoom in on the full size version

The names of all the victims of the disaster are listed in double columns on all four panels of the monument. I found this panel particularly moving - three generations of men from one family appear to have died in the disaster, including at 71, the oldest victim. Immediately under them another family appears to have lost a father and several children, including two 11 year olds. All the victims were working down the mine

View of the full panel and the memorial inscription

 

[Sabtr]

Nice one Melvin.

I've read all the names and ages on that memorial and they are still local names to the area.