Today we remember the 83 men who tragically lost their lives in the Easington Colliery Disaster on the 29th of May 1951.

81 men left for work that day and would not return home to their families. 2 brave rescue workers were also killed in the aftermath of the disaster.

The underground explosion was one of the worst mining disasters in post war Britain.

Today we remember those men and their families who paid the ultimate price of dying in the dark so we could live in the light.

The Easington Disaster
By Fred Ramsey

At the pithead, in the dawn,
rescue teams look old and drawn.
Sickened by the last vain search,
where two men died to save a corpse.

Weeping women, mangled men,
can we face it all again?
Yet, we must, for, if we strive
perhaps we’ll find just one alive.

Down this grim, blast-shattered mine,
bodies sprawl where our lamps shine.
Once strong men, once eager boys,
lie broken like discarded toys.

Our hopes have gone, our tears we’ve shed,
there’s nothing down here but the dead.
Eighty three’s the final toll;
the endless, bloody, price of coal.