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By Belinda Artingstoll
BBC Radio Cumbria, Special Features Producer

The wood bearing James Moore's last message

What makes the story of the Wellington Pit disaster even more poignant are the chalked messages found afterwards.

The messages found on doors and other pieces of wood in the mine showed that many of the 136 men and boys who died had survived the initial explosion.

The debate still continues in some families as to whether they could have been saved or not.

But most historians and mining experts believe the men were already dead before the mine was sealed off.

One of the messages was found on a piece of wood near several bodies stating "All's well in this airway at 4 o'clock. 35 men and boys. J. Moore''

The man who wrote that message was James Moore, the grandfather of Veronica Rayson from Carlisle.

Veronica Rayson's grandfather died in the accident.

Her uncle, also called James, was a baby when his father died and Veronica remembers hearing stories about the disaster from a very young age.

Family memories

She has a collection of photographs and newspaper clippings collected by her uncle, including a photograph of the piece of wood bearing her grandfather's last message.

Her brother Dennis Hinde says one of his grandfather's jobs was to make sure the airways ventilating the mine were kept clear and so he would have known the alternative routes out of the mine. He says his grandfather would have been trying to lead the other men and boys to safety.

Veronica and Dennis firmly believe many of the men were alive when the mine was sealed off and Dennis even describes it as a "criminal act".

Ponsonby Smith lost three relatives in the disaster. The bodies of all those who died were unrecognisable when they were finally brought above ground in late 1910.

New headstone

A miner's wife has heard the news that her husband cannot be saved.

His grandfather and one great uncle, like most of the dead, were identified by relatives who recognised their shoes and clothing.

But another great uncle has never been formally identified and was buried in an unmarked grave next to the graves of two other unidentified men.

As part of the commemorations the West Cumbria Mines Research Group has paid for a headstone to be erected over the graves for the first time.

Families grieve

Ponsonby says his family never really spoke about the disaster but he is glad that his relative's grave will now be properly marked.

One can only imagine the grief of the women and children left behind.

Jenni Lister from the Whitehaven Record Office and Local Studies Library, tells me of stories of a woman widowed after only 11 days of marriage. Another woman was due to marry her fiance the week following the disaster.

James Moore

The Record Office also has a letter from one grieving mother begging to know when they will be bringing her son's body up from the mine so she can bury him.

There were also the financial worries caused by the loss of at least one breadwinner in the family.

There was no welfare state to help them out but they were given a small amount of compensation.

The Whitehaven record office holds many of the compensation forms from the time.

Even after all this time Veronica Rayson still gets emotional when she thinks of what happened to her grandfather and his comrades, and the effect their deaths had on their wives and children.