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| Workhouse records |
Its all been about names this week.
Conversations in SW Burnley lead me to the archives in Preston, tracking the names of grandmothers and grandfathers.
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| Hapton Valley memorial |
I walked through the cemetery on Rossendale Road, where names I'd seen on paper records and databases were now carved on stone or glittered on polished marble. Unlike the records generated by bureaucratic needs (the workhouse lists) these family and community acts of remembrance have a passion about them - they're very personal.
The Hapton Valley Colliery disaster in 1962 claimed the lives of 19 men, and left a further 20 seriously injured. Hapton Valley was known as a 'family pit' and the disaster hit hard at families in SW Burnley - The Stoops and Accrington Road areas.
The names of the men (and boys) lost in 1962 are also commemorated at St Marks Church on Rossendale Road, at Burnley Miners' Club and other sites. Annual services of remembrance are well attended by families and friends; a testament to the strength of community - the pit closed over 30 years ago.
Acts of commemoration are a significant thread in communities like SW Burnley. Honours boards, rolls of honour, plaques and monuments were a familiar presence in schools, factories, clubs and public buildings throughout the area - many listing the names of those lost in the First World War (many of these buildings are now also gone). What remains are the names themselves, carried forward.
Kelly
