Memorial Service: 60th Anniversary of the William Pit disaster
I have just returned home from an immensely moving ceremony which commemorated the 60th anniversary of the William Pit disaster on 15th August 1947 in which 104 miners lost their lives.
This was the last and worst of 14 explosions and many other fires and other disasters during the 151 years that William Pit was open. The total number of men, women, and children killed in the mine between 1804 and 1955 was over three hundred.
As was mentioned this afternoon at the ceremony and in this week's Whitehaven News, the explosion at the William Pit in August 1947 killed 104 men and left 89 women widowed and 230 children fatherless. Of the men down the pit at the time just three survived. In a small and tightly knit community like Whitehaven the impact was absolutely devastating.
Just how powerful the impact was, and also how the whole community rallied round, was demonstrated by the numbers who turned out even sixty years later for today's ceremony. I did not attempt to count how many people took part in the service and procession, but it cannot have been far short of a thousand. And it was not just local people who rallied round: support was given from other mining communities in Britain and abroad.
Although there had been some wet weather earlier this weekend, the sky cleared over Whitehaven early this afternoon. A moving ceremony in the gardens of St Nicholas's, the procession to the site of William Pit itself under the looming mass of Bransty Hill, and the brief but powerful final commemoration at the pit site all took place in brilliant sunshine.
Today's ceremony also commemorated all those killed in the collieries of West Cumberland, and prayers were said for victims of all the other accidents in all the mines in the area.
This was the last and worst of 14 explosions and many other fires and other disasters during the 151 years that William Pit was open. The total number of men, women, and children killed in the mine between 1804 and 1955 was over three hundred.
As was mentioned this afternoon at the ceremony and in this week's Whitehaven News, the explosion at the William Pit in August 1947 killed 104 men and left 89 women widowed and 230 children fatherless. Of the men down the pit at the time just three survived. In a small and tightly knit community like Whitehaven the impact was absolutely devastating.
Just how powerful the impact was, and also how the whole community rallied round, was demonstrated by the numbers who turned out even sixty years later for today's ceremony. I did not attempt to count how many people took part in the service and procession, but it cannot have been far short of a thousand. And it was not just local people who rallied round: support was given from other mining communities in Britain and abroad.
Although there had been some wet weather earlier this weekend, the sky cleared over Whitehaven early this afternoon. A moving ceremony in the gardens of St Nicholas's, the procession to the site of William Pit itself under the looming mass of Bransty Hill, and the brief but powerful final commemoration at the pit site all took place in brilliant sunshine.
Today's ceremony also commemorated all those killed in the collieries of West Cumberland, and prayers were said for victims of all the other accidents in all the mines in the area.
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