SEARCHING for information on his father's life in Blackburn, Canadian Bert Birtwistle sends this picture showing his dad as a Lancashire lad before he emigrated in 1924 to Victoria in British Columbia.

Curiously, Mr Birtwistle is puzzled by the lanterns held by those in the group, for they are easily recognised as miners' safety lamps of the sort invented in the 19th Century by chemist Sir Humphry Davy to prevent pit explosions caused by methane gas coming into contact with naked flames. Evidently, his father, Ralph, pictured lower right, worked as a pit boy -- probably on the old "half-time" system which, prior to it ending in 1920, required children to spend half a day at work and half a day at school -- though Mr Birtwistle understands that about 1916 he began an apprenticeship as a foundry worker, an occupation he followed until departing for Canada.

Born in Blackburn on October 31, 1903, and listed as living with his parents -- who Mr Birtwistle believes were Ralph and Mary Birtwistle -- at 136 Harwood Street in 1915, it is unlikely that young Ralph was working at a colliery close to home when this picture was taken, as Blackburn's last pit was worked out by 1918.

More probably he travelled to the Accrington, Burnley or Rossendale area from where East Lancashire's deep-mined coal continued to be extracted until the closure of its last colliery -- Hapton Valley -- in 1982.

But can readers tell from the window in the background at which pit in the now-vanished coalfield this group was pictured wearing flat caps which, in the days before safety helmets, underground workers filled with chipped cork to protect them from falling rock and bumping their heads on the roofs of the often-narrow shafts.

Mr Birtwistle would welcome any information about the picture or his father. Write to him at 315 Milburn Drive, Victoria , B.C., V9C 1V3, Canada, or by e-mail at wbarwick@mailhost.wlc.com.