Memorial to honour area's lost miners

An event to commemorate local miners who lost their lives will be held for the first time this weekend.

While events marking mining incidents in West Cumbria are held regularly, previously there was no occasion to remember those individual miners who were killed or injured during routine work, according to ex-miners belonging to Pit Crack West Cumbria.

The group, who meet regularly to share memories of Cumbrian mining history, took up the challenge to mark those memories, with help of Reverend Alison Dobell, vicar of St James' Church in Whitehaven.

Pit Crack member Dave Cradduck said: "It's not just a memorial, but to commemorate what West Cumbria mining has added to the community."

Mr Cradduck said 400 years of coal and iron ore mining had helped shape the local area, and the personal stories involved deserved to be acknowledged.

He added: "The individual events were being remembered, but not the people who were actually killed or injured in the mines, so we thought it important to try and commemorate all of them together."

The Cleator Moor band will play during Sunday's memorial, with the miners parading some traditional pit banners.

Two years ago, Pit Crack West Cumbria were responsible for hosting an event to mark the William Pit disaster in Whitehaven, in which 104 miners died in 1947.

About 100 people attended the service at the site of the former pithead in August 2022.

The group's most recent event was last week - a commemoration for three 10-year-old miners killed in an explosion in 1833 in Workington.

"It's particularly distressing, when you think they had to go to work to help support their families," said Mr Cradduck.

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