Hi Peter, Glad to hear that Pam's persistence has paid off. I would be interested to know which MI's Pam found, as I did not find any when I looked. I obtained the book from my friend titled "Dark Days" by Ken Howarth. As you rightly surmised, it does not contain any names or places of burial of the victims. However it does contain lots of first hand accounts of the tragedy, including those of relatives, and rescuers. Are you familiar with this publication? Valerie

Hello Valerie Thanks for prompting me about Dark Days. I saw a copy when I was in England in 2003 before the Pretoria Project started in earnest. I mentally put it in my "buy one day" virtual filing system, which is a very cluttered place. I now have a copy on order! The MIs that Pam took pics of were for Enoch Arthur Bates, William & Robert Cowburn, John & William Higson, Peter Higson, Thomas Howcroft, Wm Henry Middlehurst. She is taking a gang from the Howfen Local History Group back there to search for more. Plus going back to Heaton where she has recruited Dave and Mick, a couple of friendly gravediggers, to find stones. I got the grave numbers from the Heaton registers, but the office staff there apparently don't have much of a clue how the old numbering system works. Pam was wandering around last month looking lost when Mick offered help with the words "you don't want to talk to them in the office - you need the head grave digger", and promptly got on his mobile to bring Dave to the scene. So there you have it now - the secret to finding graves in the Heaton maze is to look lost and hope that Dave and/or Mick are about. Hint - look for shovels full of earth flicking into the air if you can't see them anywhere above ground. Peter Wood