AFTER 96 years, the mass burial trenches where men and boys who died in the region's worst pit disaster was finally marked yesterday.

Workers struggled through the snow to lay the base of the memorial to those who died in County Durham's West Stanley Burns Pit explosion of 1909.

The work marked the end of The Northern Echo's campaign to win recognition for victims of the disaster.

And the newspaper's role was praised by Prime Minister Tony Blair for its part in raising the £5,600 needed to build the memorial.

He also praised former pitman, Stanley man Bob Drake, and the members of the Stanley Memorial Committee.

Mr Blair said: "I am delighted to learn that many of those who died in the Stanley Pit Disaster are finally to have their graves formally commemorated.

"The terrible events at the West Stanley Pit nearly a century ago ripped the heart out of the local community.

"It is only thanks to the painstaking work of Bob Drake that the resting places of many of the 168 victims have now been identified.

"I know how much hard work this involved and just how many individuals and organisations including, of course, The Northern Echo, have played their part.

"I congratulate everyone involved in this worthwhile initiative to commemorate one of the darkest days in our region's history."

The base stone will be allowed to settle for a week before the commemorative plaques and names are added.

The official unveiling by the Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend David Pritchard, will take place in Stanley on Saturday, March 5.

The Northern Echo and The Consett and Stanley Advertiser launched the campaign to have the graves marked, and the Stanley Burns Pit Disaster Memorial Committee was later formed.

The push was backed by Mr Blair, and Newcastle United legend Kevin Keegan whose grandfather, Frank, survived the disaster.

Money has come from the National Union of Miners, which gave £1,000 to key campaign organisation the St Andrew's Parochial Church Council; the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, which gave £900, and Durham County Council.

However, most of the near £6,000 raised came from smaller donations from the descendants of the victims.

The three-part, dark grey South African granite memorial is being made by Scott's Memorials, which has its headquarters in Seaham, east Durham. The names will be engraved with gold lettering. An image of a pit pony will also be sandblasted on.

It refers to the story of Billy Gardner and his pit pony, which survived the disaster.

The pitman walked round the streets of Stanley with a tin bath strapped to the pony, and people threw in money for the families of the deceased.

Mark Delaney, co-owner of Scott's, has worked personally on the project.

He said: "We're just proud to be involved with this."

The disaster killed 168 men and boys, but the stone will only name the 118 buried behind St Andrew's Church.

It will be the first time the 54 men and boys in the mass burial trenches, including a number of fathers and sons who lie side-by-side, will be marked.

The other names include people whose individual graves are in the cemetery but with no headstones, and others whose headstones have been destroyed.

Those who died in the explosion but are buried elsewhere in Stanley and across the North-East will not be referred to. There are two memorials to all the dead already in the former mining town.