Talk on South Normanton colliery disaster gives hospital cancer funds £550 boost

Author Roger West gave a presentation on the tragedy which resulted in the deaths of eight men, to 100 people at the Post Mill Centre, South Normanton.

The East Midlands Designer Outlet is on the site of the former colliery where, on February 15, in 1937, two explosions ripped through the Waterloo seam.

The men were entombed in rubble, despite massive rescue efforts by the Mansfield and Chesterfield Mines Rescue Stations.

Messages of condolence for Edwin Samuel Hill, John Marriott, Willis Lambert, Henry Willis, Everett Reeves, John Vardy, Frederick Pride and Percy Ansell came from across the nation.

Roger West presented a cheque for £550 to Rachael Tomblin, Operations Assistant Trauma, Orthopaedics-Oncology Unit, for the Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust.

He said: “Many thanks to those who made this donation possible.”