"RELICS of an industry that once fuelled an empire stand as poignant memorials to men from North Warwickshire who paid the price of coal.
They are wheels from the winding gear that once carried colliers into the blackness underground and brought them into the sunlight at the end of their stint.
Tightly-knit mining areas the length and breadth of Britain suffered losses through the ages.
But a one community on Nuneaton's doorstep paid a particularly heavy price one late spring night almost a century-and-a-half ago.
The whole area was plunged into mourning as thirty one men and a boy perished at Baddesley Colliery in one of the worst disasters in Midlands mining history.
Twenty three of them were rescuers who sacrificed their own lives trying to save of nine of their comrades trapped underground.
There were harrowing scenes as the search for bodies went on throughout the summer and the workings where they perished were finally sealed and never worked again.
The body of the youngest, Joseph Scattergood, a boy of just 13, was never recovered. He still lies in the area where he worked and died and which became his tomb.
There is no record of the body of another of the night shift victims Henry Radford Snr being brought out of the mine.
The disaster did not discriminate between age, wealth and power.
Another of the victims was the mine owner William Stratford Dugdale, a member of one of the area's richest and most influential families and the oldest was William Day, who was 71.
Others included the mine manager John Parker, the agent John Pogmore and his son Frank, a solicitor, who joined the rescue team.
most of the men who died were ordinary colliers, including three members of the same family.
Sunday April 30th 1882 was a normal day at the mine that was actually 'over the border' in Baxterley.
The night shift went down as usual, but a new area was being worked, known as the Deep Workings and to get there the men had to negotiate a deep incline.
In common with many mines in the area, including Newdigate Colliery in Bedworth and Coventry Colliery at Keresley, water was a problem and steam driven pumps were installed.
What easier and more economical method to remove the water than by steam pumps powered by coal?
A boiler placed on a brick platform heated the water but it was supposed to have had a brick archway over it as a safety measure. It was never built.
After a while, the miners noticed the coal above the boiler was starting to glow red hot and they threw buckets of water on it and then set up a hosepipe, the worst thing they could do under the circumstances.
The coal smouldered, creating thick, choking smoke imprisoning eight men and the boy.
Even more tragically, all of them had gone to work reluctantly because the mine was not in full production owing to an expected drop in demand during the coming summer months, but some repair work was needed.
At about 10pm, Joseph Day, a deputy, went to relieve his father, Charles Day, but as he entered the mine he encountered the smoke and alerted his dad.
Both were beaten back by the suffocating fumes, but Joseph managed to crawl along the ground where the clean air was and raised the alarm.
John Parker organised a rescue party and a man named Reuben Smallman eventually took charge of operations and the men worked through the night trying to build wooden screens which they covered in special cloth to hold back the blaze.
At about 8.30am in the morning of May Day the drama took a tragic twist when there was an explosion of coal dust and flames tore through the mine.
Most of the rescuers were horribly burned and those who were not too badly hurt helped their stricken work-mates and others to rescue the rescuers.
Reuben Smallman was so badly injured he was barely recognisable, but he was still able to tell Arthur Stokes, an assistant chief mining engineer, who had arrived at the mine shortly after the explosion, what had happened.
Smallman warned him the mine was full of smoke and deadly, noxious fumes, but Stokes still agreed to try and rescue the men still trapped underground, knowing another explosion could occur at any time.
Spruce Mottram, a mining engineer from Tamworth, Mr Marsh, manager of Hall End Colliery agreed to go with him, along with Charles Day and another miner named William Morris.
They brought up an injured but still alive Mr Dugdale, who was taken to his home at Merevale Hall and died nine days later.
Again risking their lives they went down a second time and brought up 17-year-old John Collins.
Despite his exhaustion, Charles Day again went down the mine with William Pickering and Joseph Chetwynd and found Rowland Till, the carpenter, who had been building the wooden screens, and managed to get him to the pit bottom and up to safety, but he died soon afterwards.
All 23 of the rescuers died from their injuries and it was decided not to risk more lives.
Their death certificates recorded that they died from 'burns and the inhalation of noxious gas.'
The mine was sealed, cutting off oxygen to the fire, leaving the nine night shift workers entombed.
A Relief Fund set up for the families of the victims brought donations from all over the country and Albert Medals for bravery were awarded to honour the heroism of ten men, who tried to save the lives of their stricken work-mates.
First Class medals went to Reuben Smallman, Arthur Stokes, Charles Day and Charles Chetwynd and Second Class medals to Samuel Spruce, Thomas Mottram, Frederick Marsh, Joseph Chetwynd, William Pickering and William Morris.
All of the rescuers were presented with commemorative Bibles. The ones for those who died went to their families and became treasured heirlooms.
More than two years elapsed before some of the bodies were recovered and the area of the Deep Workings was bricked up and never worked again.
Three volunteers also undertook the gruesome task of dismembering the carcasses of eleven horses killed in the explosion which were brought to the surface and buried.
The mine did reopen and was owned by the Dugdale family until the industry was nationalised in 1948. It finally closed in 1989.
The mining memorials are in the form of half a pit winding wheel set on a stone plinth. One stands on Baddesley Common and the other next to the village pond at Baxterley.
They have a tablet beneath them inscribed with the words: 'Erected by Baddesley Ensor Parish Council in 1991. In memory of the miners who for 300 years worked and many of whom died in the mines at Baddesley Ensor. The last mine closed in 1989.'
They bear testament to an industry that died and honour the memory all of the men whose lives were lost in the quest for coal.
Baddesley miners and their would be rescuers who died
William Dugdale (aged 54) Mine owner.
John Pogmore (aged 57) Agent.
Frank Pogmore (aged 27) Solicitor
John Parker (aged 58) Manager.
Joseph Clay (aged 52) Underviewer.
Joseph Day (aged 31) Deputy.
Joseph Ball (aged 48) Enginewright.
Rowland Till (aged 29) Carpenter.
Amos Ball (aged 26) Collier.
Thomas Day (aged 20) Collier.
William Day (aged 22) Collier.
William Horton (aged 56) Collier.
John Smallwood (aged 49) Collier.
Charles Evans (aged 32) Collier.
John Evans (aged 25) Collier.
Richard Evans (aged 28) Collier.
Sam Boonham (aged 49) Collier.
John Atkins (aged 35) Collier.
Chas Albrighton (aged 20) Collier.
Eli Smith Jnr (aged 19) Collier.
Thomas Besson (aged 41) Collier.
John Collins (aged 17) Collier.
Richard Archer (aged 32) Collier.
Bodies recovered in 1883/84
William Smith (aged 46) Collier.
John Ross (aged 51) Collier.
Joseph Orton (aged 35) Collier.
George Bates (aged 38) Collier.
William Blower (aged 26) Collier.
William Knight (aged 31) Collier.
William Day (aged 71) Collier.
Bodies that were never recovered
Henry Radford (aged 51) Collier.
Joseph Scattergood (aged 13) Boy"
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