TRIBUTES have been paid to a man who was passionate about preserving his town’s mining heritage.

Fred Smith, who has died at the age of 86, was known locally as “the man who pinched the miners’ banner”

in 1964.

That year, bosses at the struggling Crook Colliery, in County Durham, decided they could not afford the transport and band to take part in the Durham Miners’ Gala.

Mr Smith, of Grasmere Grove, Crook, led ten men who decided to flout the ruling and take the banner to the gala on the bus.

They were hauled in the next day for a disciplinary hearing, but ended up being praised by their bosses for representing the pit, known as The Hole In The Wall, at the parade. Mr Smith’s niece, Brenda Smith, said: “They had a sense of pride in their pit. If your colliery was not represented at the gala, it would have been horrible. It was quite a big thing though because you did not just nick the banner.”

Crook Colliery closed later the same year.

Mr Smith became a custodian of the Crook miner’s banner and was instrumental in preserving it.

Ms Smith said: “He was proud of being a miner and wanted kids today to know what their grandfathers and great-grandfathers did and the heritage they have.”

A service for Mr Smith will take place in St Catherine’s Church, Crook, at 1.40pm today, followed by cremation at Durham Crematorium.