Pelsall marks 150th anniversary of mining disaster

A community has marked the 150th anniversary of a disaster which killed 22 miners.

The miners, who ranged in age from 13 to 89, died when Pelsall Hall Colliery in Walsall, West Midlands, flooded on 14 November 1872.

Each was remembered in a ceremony attended by dozens of residents during which some of the victims' descendants laid wreaths.

"I consider them as brave men that died," said one victim's relative.

Mike Reynolds continued: "To know it is still recognised today, 150 years later, it is just everything really."

The 22 were cut off when one of their colleagues struck an old headway and water flooded in, according to the Northern Mine Research Society.

It took a week to reach the bodies and bring them back to the surface.

A memorial was erected at St Michael and All Angels Pelsall Parish Church to mark the disaster.