LAST week’s Memories mentioned the horrific Crawleyside Bank bus crash of August 14, 1969, in Weardale, in which 20 people connected to the Blackhall Colliery Veterans’ Bowls Club were killed on their way home from a match in Consett.
Blackhall, then a village of about 7,000 souls, was devastated by the disaster, but the mourning process was helped when the Miners’ Welfare Committee decided to raise funds to build a memorial in the park. England international footballer Stan Anderson organised a fundraising match in his hometown of Horden, about a mile up the road, and Sunderland player Bobby Kerr – who five years later would lift the FA Cup as the Black Cats captain – led another in Blackhall, and the memorial was unveiled soon afterwards.
For many years, teams in the East Durham Coast Veterans League have competed for the Blackhall Memorial Trophy. Harry Archbold, vice-chairman of the Blackhall Veterans’, writes to tell us that this year the trophy is being bowled for on Friday, August 1, at Houghton Bowls Club.
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