TWO former miners who worked most of their lives at Maltby Main Colliery have had a book published.
Dave Brennan and Eric Beckett have written A Shaft Full Of Shadows, a book which lists most of the men killed while working at the pit.
Dave came up with the idea 20 years ago to find the names of all the men killed and give them some sort of recognition.
After mentioning the idea to Eric, the pair spent three years researching - using archives, news reports, inquest results and speaking to retired miners and families of those who died.
“Some of the stories were heart wrenching, the youngest we found who had been killed was only 14 years of age, the oldest, 72, he came out of retirement to help the war effort during World War II,” said Dave.
The pair found 163 dead men, but believe there are still more, particularly from during World War II when the pit got the nickname ‘The Widow Maker’.
Dave added: “We couldn’t just fill our pages about death so we had to lighten the book and told about Maltby when it was a vibrant mining village and everyone knew everyone else. We wrote about Children’s Outing Funds and trips to the seaside.”