THE NEW Lundhill Colliery disaster memorial will help young people to realise what it was like to live in a mining community, Joan Robinson, chairman of Wombwell Heritage Group, said on Monday. She was speaking at the unveiling of the monument at the Hillies Golf Club, Wombwell, on the 150th anniversary of the disaster which killed 189 men and boys. Miss Robinson said George Beedan, an expert on mining, who died last year, was the inspiration behind the project. "As a group we realised children were growing up with no understanding of what it was like to live in a mining community." Almost all traces of the pits that once dominated Wombwell had gone and when she wanted some coal she had to bring it back from her holiday in Whitby last year. Even the Lundhill Tavern had dropped 'Lundhill' from its title.
