SCORES of people attended a ceremony to pay tribute to North-East miners who lost their lives.

Following an appeal in The Northern Echo, members of the public came forward with more than 100 names to be inscribed on plaques in Jubilee Park, Spennymoor, County Durham.

On Saturday, a total of four plaques were installed on tubs by Spennymoor Town Council, and the ceremony also saw the rededication of the banners of collieries in Tudhoe and Whitworth.

In April 1882, 37 miners lost their lives in an explosion at nearby Tudhoe Colliery.

A cemetery in the town already has a memorial to that black day and a service earlier this year saw three original coal tubs unveiled in memory of the pit dead.

Town councillor Bill Waters, who was at the ceremony, said the town's mining heritage was something which should be remembered in this way.

He said: "It is the mining area, and there are still a lot of retired miners alive in the town. Some of them still suffer from diseases and injuries from their work."