THIS is the final design for a memorial to the victims of East Lancashire's worst-ever mining disaster.

Hyndburn environmental charity, the Prospects Foundation, has been working with volunteers in Clayton and Altham to create a lasting tribute to the 68 men and boys who died in a huge underground gas explosion.

Those who died at Moorfield Colliery on November 8, 1883, ranged in age from 10 to 56.

The design was revealed at a meeting of the Clayton and Altham Area Council.

Permission has already been secured to put the memorial on a site in Burnley Road.

The plan is to landscape the area and create a central feature, which will include a piece of pit machinery.

Area council chairman Coun Tim O'Kane said: "The memorial will contain one or two pieces of mining equipment.

"It is a very sensitive subject because we are talking about the loss of 68 men and children and it is a local memorial.

"I think they have tried to capture what it is all about in the design.

"I would like to thank Clayton and Altham Prospects Panel for the work that they have done on this and we look forward to seeing the memorial completed within the next few months."

Clayton and Altham Prospects Panel has raised £6,000 to pay for the memorial thanks to grants from the area council and property developer Persimmon Homes.

Lancashire County Council provided the services of a landscape architect to design the site for free and Mid Pennine Arts has helped with the design of the central feature.

In 2003, on Remembrance Sunday, around 70 people attended a service at St James's Parish Church, Altham, to commemorate not only the area's war dead but those who died in the mining disaster.

"It is hoped the memorial will be completed in time to hold a service there to mark the anniversary of the disaster this year.

Mike Stapleford, community projects development officer for the Prospects Foundation, said: "It is important to create a memorial because the disaster was such a major event in Altham's history. So many men and boys died."