Looking back: the Hapton Valley Pit disaster of 1962

These words from the BBC were the introduction to the worst day in my life.

I quickly got up and made ready to go to my parents' house on Rowley Street/. Two women who were outside asked me if I'd heard the news.

"Yes, I've two brothers working there so I'm going there as quickly as I can."

When I arrived at Rowley Street I found my mother in a distressed state of apprehension, fearing the worst. I told her I was going to the pit top to find out what I could.

I saw a motorist at the bottom of the street who I took to be a friend of my dad's. He wasn't, but offered me a lift to the pit top.

The pit top was pretty crowded with the rescue services and the police. Some of the lads looked pretty shocked. I asked one of them about my brothers Terry and Jimmy. He told me that Terry was okay,, but Jimmy was dead.

That was a terrible blow.

I spent a bit of time composing myself before I went home with the bad news. Going across the cemetery, I couldn't see my brother Tom, who was a grave digger there. He'd gone home on hearing the news, but I saw my uncle Billy Broxup, who was going to the pit top. I told him about Jimmy.

On my way to Rowley Street, I was wondering how to break the bad news to my parents, but as it happened I didn't have to. As I got nearer to the house, a neighbour; Bella Morris, said to me:"Joe, don't tell me Jimmy's dead." Bad news travelled fast.

Now Jimmy should have been married on March 31st. so my way of breaking the bad news was to say that the wedding was off.

Both my parents came from big families, and the house started to fill up with uncles and aunts. I told my Mam that I was going to Bellings, where Jimmy's fiancée worked to tell her the bad news.

Joyce O'Neill was a pretty redhead who always seemed to be at my parents' house.I remember jokingly telling Jimmy: "She's' frightened of losing you." I didn't realise at the time how grimly prophetic those words were.

Of course, Joyce, when she heard the news, had left work and gone to Rowley Street, so I didn't see her until I got back there;. She was sat broken-hearted, being comforted by my cousin Annie Hyatt.

Later that day, the police came and took my dad and myself to the pit top to identify Jimmy.

The bodies of the victims were laid out on covered stretchers in the cycle shed with their surnames scrawled at the foot of each stretcher.

A few days later, I heard that young Peter Tinsley had died after lingering a few days, so I went over to his parents where his sister Jean and her husband Sam Fletcher were with Amos and Mrs.Tinsley. Jean,who was heavily pregnant,was grief-stricken and I tried to comfort her.

Most of the funerals took place on March 27th - a bright,cold day.Each of the funeral parties was accompanied by miners and friends walking alongside the hearse. Old Dan Jones the M.P. was at the cemetery gates greeting each cortèege as it arrived.

Those are a few of my recollections.

Of course, the good people of Burnley took us to their hearts. The Mayor opened a Disaster fund, and there were collections at the pit tops and factories. I remember the collection at Bank Hall pit top if only for one reason: A Polish miner came up and put in a £10 note. When you consider that at that time £1 would have bought 16 pints of bitter or 16lb of meat and he put in ten times the amount, you will get an idea of the huge sacrifice he made.

In the aftermath of the disaster there was a public inquiry, which left us with no clear-cut explanation of the cause of the disaster. The Inspectorate of Mines was meticulous in their examination of the evidence, but was unable to pinpoint a specific cause for the explosion.

Each year, on the weekend nearest the anniversary, the victims are remembered, and with the passage of time the number of people attending gets smaller.

Soon, there will be no one to remember the day, and all that will remain will be the memorial boulder which stands in the cemetery bearing the names of the nineteen victims.

We remember those that perished, 60 years ago on Tuesday.

Those killed:

Christopher William Brown, aged 55 years, driller,

Sampson Henry Bulle, aged 44 years, deputy,

James Cumming, aged 19 years supply man,

Robert Dunston, aged 26 years, ripper,

Stanley Faulkes, aged 41 years, filler,

John William Halstead, aged 53 years deputy and shotfirer,

George Hartley, aged 32 years, mechanic,

Raymond Earnest Howarth, aged 20 years, electrician,

Tom Isherwood, aged 49 years, face supervisor,

Donald Stewart McGoogan, aged 28 years, mechanic

Garry Pickle, aged 22 years, electrician,

John Robinson, aged 24 years, filler,

Donald Rushton, aged 33 years, ripper,

Robert Shuttleworth, aged 33 years, filler,

Ronnie Anthony Taylor, aged 16 years, supply man

Benjamin Walsh, aged 25 years, filler.

Died from injuries:

John Grieg Barritt, aged 23 years electrician,

Joseph Forrest, aged 17 years, supplies man,

Peter Tinsley, aged 16 years, apprentice electrician.