Christmas was coming . . . and so was one of the worst mining disasters in history.

Almost every family in tight-knit communities girding the doomed pit lost someone.

Some homes were emptied completely of menfolk on that fateful day in 1910.

Four days before December 25 and a tired miner asks his wife to prepare the hen he has purchased for the festive meal; he waves her goodbye and disappears into the grim morning darkness never to be seen again. He was to become a victim of the horrific Pretoria Pit disaster.

The Hulton Colliery was situated on the border of Atherton and Westhoughton, one of four pits owned by the Hulton Colliery Company.

Two shafts sunk in 1900 and 1901 were known as No 3 and No 4. The shafts were split into seams. One was the Plodder Seam - and on this level the disastrous explosion occurred.

Working in the seams of the ill-fated No 3 pit were 344 men and boys. They were split up into 230 workers in the Yard Seam, 90 men in the Plodder Seam and 24 in the Threequarter Seam

Not one of these unfortunate miners was to see the end of the day. At 7.50 on the morning of Wednesday, December 21 an explosion occurred in the No 3 shaft, affecting all three seams and killing all 344 men and boys. The explosion caused an earth tremor which could be felt for miles around, spreading fear and confusion among loved ones.

The news spread quickly as anxious womenfolk from Atherton, Bolton and Westhoughton gathered at the pithead - but all they could do was wait.

No attempt was made to enter the shaft until the general manager, a man by the name Tonge, arrived. Only then would he and five other men descend the No 4 shaft which would give access to the disaster area.

The time was 9am as the cage was slowly lowered, and, although the force of the blast had thrown various obstacles in its way, these were patiently overcome.

The men entered the yard seam and discovered the underground fan had been blown inwards with the impact; there was much wreckage.

A number of fires were still burning, and, fearing they would be overcome by flames, Mr Tonge and his helpers returned to the surface to organise the installation of emergency fans.

Within 30 minutes a search of the mine began and the horrendous scale of the disaster was to be seen.

The nearest body to the detonation point was sixty yards away and some of the bodies were terribly burned or mutilated.

One was found impaled on a piece of timber, another split almost in two.

Rescue men with breathing apparatus began the hazardous job of getting the bodies out of the mine, but they were hindered by the precarious state of the roofs and supports.

The men worked continuously throughout Christmas and the New Year to complete a task that was likened to clearing a battlefield.

Local author Ernie Ford wrote: "In Westhoughton and surrounding districts the 1910 Christmas snow was washed away with tears."

The ground erupted, spit fire and rumbled with such ferocity that the noise and tremor could be heard and felt for many miles away.

And, for many years afterwards, the sounds haunted the miners' wives in their disturbed sleep. For many years before the disaster it had been suspected there was a danger of gas at Pretoria. Men returning from work had fallen too easily asleep over their evening meal. But no-one could have predicted the horror waiting to happen.

Ashen-faced wives and families who gathered at the pit saw the first body brought up between 10 and 11 o'clock. It was the badly-burned body of a youth named Gibson aged just 15.

The second victim brought out was Fountain Byers, 33, also badly burned. Remarkably, he was still alive. But his injuries were so severe he died the next day.

Although the first bodies recovered were horribly burned, the majority of victims showed no visible signs of injury. They had all been overcome by deadly carbon monoxide.

The people who found them reported it was as if they were sleeping peacefully.

One women lost her husband and four sons. A retired collier lost five sons, a brother and a nephew. There were many families mourning four or five of their close relations.

Ernie Ford wrote: "If only the peace on earth had been underground at Pretoria Pit on that fateful morning."

There were funerals on Christmas Day, which was a Sunday, continuing from morning till night, and also on Monday and Tuesday, then at steady intervals during the following sombre days of everlasting mourning.

Undertakers were stretched to the limit. In some cases the dead were buried in coffins which had not been varnished. Simply, there was not the time.

An inquiry was started on February 20 1911 at Westhoughton's Carnegie Hall to explore the reasons behind the explosion.

It was finally decided a roof collapse on the North Plodder Seam caused gas to build up and that was ignited by a faulty lamp.

That faulty lamp took 344 men and boys to an early grave.

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