>From another list............ I'm trying to track down a quarry accident, near Bromley Cross, where my grandfather lost an eye. His wedding photo in 1905 shows his with 2 good eyes and I believe he never served in WW1, so I'm assuming it happened during these 9/10 years. Further information from the writer............ In the late 30's to 40's he was living in Arnold Rd (next door to the Flag Inn) Bromley Cross and I was told of the quarry accident (with vague indications of it being up the road and quite near!). He always wore a patch over his eye, which I found fascinating as a child. He married MaryA BRENNAN in the parish church of Astley Bridge. By 1914 he lived at 50 Hamer Row, Turton. See the two photographs on (ref: 4w) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~boltongenealogy/photogallery2.htm Merry Christmas Derek Crompton London South-East

Folks To let you know that the Pretoria Pit Disaster (21 Dec 1910) resource on the LAN-OPC Westhoughton Parish site has been recently updated (http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Westhoughton/Pretoria/index.html) Pam Clarke and I first presented the site a year ago, and since then we (along with a host of friends) have been working diligently to find out more details about the victims. We now know where all but 6 of the 344 victims were buried and where all but two were born, and have added six more memorial inscriptions. Reports on the indivdual victims now include the names of the family members who were declared to be dependants and received compensation from the The Hulton Colliery Explosion (1910) Relief Fund, published in October 1911. We worked our way through a large number of newspaper reports and have extracted comments on working conditions down the pit, attributed to some of the victims, as reported from the Coroner's Inquest. We tracked down as many census records as we could, and these enabled us to clarify doubtful birthplaces, ages and family relationships. To aid identification of some bodies, the police issued detailed body and clothing descriptions which were published in the newspapers. These are now included, though mostly they are descriptions of the victims who were buried unidentified. Despite the sometimes macabre details, these descriptions give a fascinating glimpse of how coal miners dressed in those days - even down to the colour of window cord used as laces to tie their clogs. There is an extended account of the death of William Turton, the only rescue man to die. It has been reported (as late as 2006 on a DVD about the disaster) that he died trying to save two sons trapped in the workings by the explosion. Evidence given to the official enquiries into the disaster, and knowledge of his family history, show that this story was based on a misinterpretaion of a newspaper report, and he actually died helping a workmate put out a small fire, as instructed by the colliery General Manager. We also now know he was the oldest man to die, aged 62, not 60 as in his death registration and on his gravestone. Peter Wood & Pam Clarke