WARTIME miner Arthur (Lobby) Littler has come up with a confident answer to our recent pit-pony puzzler, posed by a gaggle of St Helens nostalgia nuts.

Says Lobby: "The last pony to work in the local pits was down the Old Boston Colliery at Haydock, where I worked as a youth. And you can bet on that!

"I remember it being hoisted up in a special sling under the pit cage when it was brought to the surface for a break."

And he can even remember the name of the little brown beast of burden. "It was Sammy," he declares with authority.