A FORMER mining community has paid tribute to hundreds of its men and boys who lost their lives working in the coal industry.

In April 1882, 37 miners died in an explosion at Tudhoe Colliery, near Spennymoor. A cemetery in Spennymoor already has a memorial to the town's blackest day at the colliery which, until that day, had been known as one of the country's safest.

But on Saturday, Spennymoor Town Council commemorated almost 200 men and boys who died for coal with a service involving the town's churches.

Town mayor John Marr unveiled the tribute, consisting of three original coal tubs, in Jubilee Park after an appeal from town clerk Terry Robson through the Advertiser's sister paper, The Northern Echo saw the council offices flooded with names of those who died in the pits.

But, because of the response and the revelation that a new source for names exists in Durham, which Mr Robson has yet to check, the names have not all been engraved on the memorial.

The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Michael Turn-bull, has been invited to rededicate the memorial once it is completed.

Mr Robson said: "There has been such a response with the names coming in that the engraver couldn't have it ready for Saturday."