Tribute digs up a rich seam of miner memories

It was once a place where the mining industry thrived, where thousands worked in dirty, dangerous conditions, keeping the country in power.

This weekend, a memorial will be unveiled in tribute to those who died while working at the Bilston Glen Colliery at Loanhead. Here, LINDA SUMMERHAYES speaks to three families who lost loved ones at the Midlothian pit and finds out why this memorial means so much

Ann Frame, 65, retired hospital domestic, Loanhead

WORKING as a train driver, bringing miners to and from the Bilston Glen pit, was a job that George Frame loved so much that his friends called him The Mole.

He took all the overtime he could get, and most days he would rise with his wife Ann at 5am, pick up the lunch she'd made for him and kiss her goodbye, promising to return just after 3pm. November 11, 1981, was a day just like any other, but when Ann saw colliery officials approaching her front door, she knew something terrible had happened.

"It took me a long time before it sunk in, what had actually happened," says Ann.

"I could say that now and again I still feel terrible, but at the end of the day what good would it do?" George was just 42 when he was was struck by a coal wagon at the Peacock Junction. He was killed instantly.

The father-of-three had been on the track making changes to the rails to allow another train to pass when the accident happened.

Ann, whose father George Whitson was also a miner, says: "It was just a case of one of those things that happen in the pit.

"I used to worry sometimes but not very often. There was always someone who got hurt or killed – it was just one of those things that happen with that kind of industry."

Before they could even begin to start putting George's death behind them, Ann and her children had to suffer the agony of waiting five years for a fatal accident inquiry to rule that George's death was accidental.

"It answered nothing and we got nothing," says Ann. "So in the end we had to get on with our lives.

"We just lived from week to week and we've survived."

Ann is proud that her husband's name is on the new memorial.

She says: "People here still remember the ones who died but I think this will help future generations to remember what the village was about."

Jane Docherty McLean, 71, Harrietsville, Canada

THE last time Jane saw her father Jackie Docherty he told her how proud he was of her and described the young woman as the apple of his eye. A week later – on Mother's Day 1957 – Jane learned the awful news that her father had been killed in a terrible accident at the Bilston Glen Colliery.

"It will devastate me for the rest of my days on earth," says Jane, who emigrated to Canada with her husband Bill, an engineer, six years after her father died.

"He was a wonderful man, a big tall handsome guy. I was very proud of him too as he was of Bill and I."

Jackie's death on March 31, 1957 is the earliest to be recorded on the memorial, which in all lists the names of 15 men who died.

The 40-year-old was killed while he was clearing debris from the sides of a mine shaft.

He was suspended on a platform 150ft above the floor of the shaft when it suddenly tilted as it was lowered down the mine.

Jackie lost his footing and fell through a hole in the centre of the platform.

Jane says the tragedy was particularly difficult to come to terms with because her father was working an extra shift to cover for a colleague attending a wedding.

Just a week earlier Jackie had been in high spirits during a dance the family were all attending in Loanhead.

"My dad wasn't a drinker," recalls Jane, who grew up at Townhead Farm on Polton Road, Loanhead. "That night he had a couple of drinks so Bill and I had to take him home and put him to bed.

"I was getting ready to leave the room when he sat up and leaned on one elbow and he said he wanted to tell my husband and I how proud he was of us. He then looked directly at me and said 'you're the apple of my eye'. That was the last time I saw him.

"Exactly one week later he was lying in the next bedroom in his casket. He was a very young man, far too young to die."

After Jackie's death, his wife Marie remarried and emigrated to Canada with Jane and Bill, who are now grandparents.

Sadly, Marie and her second husband Peter Green died in a car crash. The last time Jane and Bill, 72, visited the Lothians was to return their ashes to Scotland.

The couple hope to return to Loanhead soon to visit the new memorial with their two sons Dean, 47, and 42-year-old Jayson.

"This memorial is absolutely wonderful," says Jane.

"It means that for the rest of our lives and our grandchildren's lives Jackie Docherty's name is up there."

James Wight, 67, retired electrician, Bonnyrigg

WITH a family of six sons, Bilston Glen blacksmith Robert Wight worked every hour he could – usually seven days a week.

On October 2 1965, he was carrying out a safety inspection of one of the huge skips that could hold up to ten tonnes of coal. As the massive container was being moved, Robert was crushed between it and a girder. He died instantly of head injuries.

"We were all devastated," says his son James. "He was a very quiet man and hard working, well respected in Rosewell. He loved his job and was good at his job."

As secretary of the Rosewell Miners' Welfare Club, treasurer of the local bowling club and president of the Old Age Pensioners' Association, Robert was well known in the local community.

Mourners from all over the area came to pay their respects and James says it is fitting that his father will be remembered on the memorial.

James will attend the memorial with wife Charlotte and aunt Nessie Stewart.

"The memorial means an awful lot to us," says Robert. "It's like a token of recognition to the people who gave their lives to the industry."