VIDEO: Remembering Maltby's mining disaster

Youngsters, mostly from Crags Community School, crafted the tributes from drinks cans and tin foil for a march to Grange Lane cemetery.

The event followed a service earlier in the day at the Limekiln Lane memorial to the disaster, which claimed the lives of 27 Maltby miners.

And Saturday (30) saw a fun day held in Coronation Park to raise awareness of the efforts to build a tribute honouring the 160-plus men who died at the pit.

Bill Spilsbury, chairman of Maltby Miners’ Memorial Community Group, said: “The event went well, all the kids enjoyed it and we raised a bit of money, but mostly this was about raising awareness.

“At the first service last Thursday, I ended my speech by saying while ever I’m alive, I’ll be here every year on July 28 to pay tribute to those 27 men.

“The children brought their lamps to the cemetery and in the evening they were lit up around the grave, which looked stunning.”

One body, that of Original Renshaw, was recovered on the day of the disaster and another by chance in 1947, which has never been identified and has come to represent all of those killed.

Rev Mike Rajkovic led both the memorial services, with the earlier one culminating in him reading out the names of the 27 men, which includes Bill’s grandfather, John Chandler Spilsbury.

Relatives and others laid wreaths and flowers at the memorial on Limekiln Lane — 800 yards above where the explosion happened — and at the unknown miner’s grave.

Among those attending the services was Ron Buck (84), who is believed to be the oldest surviving Maltby miner.

Ron, of Redwood Drive, spent 30 years at the pit from 1955. He said: “The disaster is encased in history.

“The fact that there’s still men down there, while ever that pit was working, it was a case of ‘be careful, you know what can happen’.

“I never regretted a day at the pit. You’d get knocked about a bit but the comradeship was stronger than in the army.”

The memorial group’s target is to raise £45,000 for a permanent tribute on High Street, near the leisure centre, honouring all those who were killed at the pit.

Click here to visit the memorial group on Facebook