Sapling planted at mine disaster memorial spreads message of hope

Veronica Billings said it was a "privilege" to have the tree and to be at the planting

The planting of a Tree of Hope at a site dedicated to a mining disaster that killed more than 150 people is a fitting tribute, a champion of the site has said.

Forty-nine saplings have been grown from seeds gathered from the Sycamore Gap tree that was illegally chopped down in Northumberland in 2023.

One of the first was planted at the Minnie Pit memorial garden in Halmer End, near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire.

It pays tribute to the 155 men and boys killed in an underground explosion at the mine in 1918. Steering group member Colin Bielby said they had applied for the sycamore sapling with the line: "From destruction springs hope."

The 49 saplings have been grown by the National Trust to represent the height of the original sycamore, in feet, that was a key landmark nestling in a dip next to Hadrian's Wall until it was felled.

Daniel Michael Graham 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were jailed for criminal damage in July.

The National Trust grew 49 saplings from seeds gathered from the original tree

Sue Moffatt, from the Minnie Pit comemoration centenary steering group, said: "I think the sapling being called a Tree of Hope is amazing."

She said that since the centenary of the pit explosion seven years ago, the group had been "doing their best to make it a fitting place to remember the heritage, the sacrifice, the actual hope and determination of a community in the face of a terrible disaster".

'A privilege'

Many of the families of those who died still lived in the area, she said, adding: "If you go to a local school, whether it's a high school or primary school, and read those names out, it's like reading the names of a register."

The new sapling has also been dedicated to the memory of Brian Billings, a volunteer at the Minnie Pit site, and his wife Veronica Billings said it was "a privilege" to be there.

She explained how she came from a Welsh mining family and her husband from a mining family in Chesterton.