Hundreds attend unveiling of Wakefield mining memorial

The monument features a winding wheel from a local colliery

Hundreds of people have attended the unveiling of a mining memorial in West Yorkshire.

A parade led by a bagpipe band and banners marked the opening of the monument in Wakefield, which consists of a winding wheel from a local pit mounted in a brick base.

The area was once home to six pits and supporting businesses.

Organiser Eddie Downes said the memorial was about remembering the city's lost mining heritage.

"Virtually everybody who live around here has got a miner somewhere in their ancestry," he said.

At its height in the 1920s the UK mining industry employed about 1.2 million people.

The last coal mine closed in the area in 2002.

Miners' union banners were carried proudly through the city to mark the occasion

The former Caphouse Colliery was closed in 1985 and become the National Coal Mining Museum for England, attracting thousands of visitors every year.

Watching the unveiling ceremony, Barbara White, whose father worked underground, described the memorial as "brilliant".

"There were a very hard core of workers," she said.

"When you saw my dad come home come so dirty, so black with pink eyes. You couldn't imagine anybody getting so dirty."