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.
