A HISTORIAN is calling for a memorial to be built in a town centre for all miners who have lost their lives in the area.

Jack Nadin, 70, from Burnley, has spent most of his life researching about the area and discovered at least 326 men and boys - some as young as 13 - have died in mining accidents in Burnley from the 1600s to 1970s.

In one of the darkest days of the town’s mining history, a total of 19 miners lost their lives at the Hapton mining site after an explosion ripped through the Union Seam at Hapton Valley Colliery on the morning of March 22, 1962.

A memorial was created for the miners who lost their lives in the Hapton disaster at Burnley Cemetery, where an annual service is held, but Mr Nadin is now proposing a memorial be built for all Burnley miners who have lost their lives in the pits.

The retired miner, of Prestwich Street, worked in the Hapton Valley pit from 1964 to 1972 and spent nearly 40 hours a week underground, earning the equivalent of just £2.25 a day.

The grandfather-of-four said: “When I started I was only 16 and was put to work on the actual tunnel where the explosion in Hapton happened two years before.

“As you can imagine it was a bit scary for a young lad but you just had to get up and get on with it. It was a very dangerous job,” said Mr Nadin.

Despite the dangers Mr Nadin said he missed the “comradeship” of miners working in the pits.

He said: “I think (the miners) would go back into the job tomorrow if they could because of the comradeship. If anything happened they would be there for you. It was like a family.”

The father-of-two, who wrote a book on the 50th anniversary of the Hapton Valley disaster of 1962, has now set up a Burnley Mining Memorial Fund to raise money for a permanent memorial to the Burnley miners who lost their lives, recording the names of all the known men and boys who died in the pits.

Mr Nadin hopes to raise £75,000 to finance the ‘mining memorial’ project and has applied for lottery grants from lottery grants and donations from local businesses.

He has also held a meeting with Burnley Council’s head of green spaces and amenities, Simon Goff, as he attempts to find a suitable location for the memorial in the town centre.

He said: “I was travelling around the country and noticed other mining towns, in such as South Yorkshire and Wales, had memorials and I thought we should have one.

“I want it somewhere public and around the town centre - where it can be seen and read. I want people to go up and say, ‘my great uncle is there’, or, my ‘great grandad is there’.

“I also have a couple of ideas for getting kids involved, including a visit to Woodend Mining Museum, in Barden Lane, so the younger generation can learn about the history of our town.”

Burnley Council leader Cllr Mark Townsend, who is also a former miner, said the council ‘passionately’ supports Mr Nadin’s idea.

He said: “The council is fully supportive of this initiative and recognises the contribution, hard work and sacrifice the miners gave to the people in Burnley. We will endeavour to make this a reality.”

If you want to donate to the fund, which has raised more than £1,000 so far, visit the fund's Facebook page.

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