Diary helps bring the story of Pretoria Pit Disaster to life
2:00pm Monday 17th August 2009 in News
THE Pretoria Pit Disaster, which killed almost 350 people, has been brought to life in a new book.
Andrea Finney has dedicated ‘A Story of the Pretoria Pit Disaster’ to the life of her great, great grandmother having used information gleaned from a personal diary dating back to the 19th century.
The diary, written by Elizabeth Gore, contained a description of the explosion at the Pretoria Pit, Westhoughton, in 1910, which killed 344 men and boys including Elizabeth’s son.
And when Andrea decided she wanted to trace her family history her memories of the diary were vital to that search.
Although she no longer had the diary, and no-one in the family knew where it was, Andrea was able to remember what it contained.
“I have a photographic memory and I remembered what it said,” said 43-year-old Andrea, who lives in Horwich.
Andrea, who works as a PA to the directors of a property development company, said she had read the diary at the home of her mother, 68-year-old Joyce Shaw.
It had been passed down through the family and, at that time, belonged to Andrea’s grandmother.
“It was snippets of information written throughout Elizabeth’s life detailing all sorts of things,” said Andrea.
But when Andrea’s grandmother died the diary mysteriously disappeared. “We have all been searching high and low for it but can’t find it. We wonder if it was buried with my grandmother,” she said.
Elizabeth’s son, William, died in the blast but, thankfully, his son, John had not gone to work that morning as he felt ill.
Andrea who is married to Nigel, aged 45 and has a 16-year-old son called Alex said: “There is something very special about writing about your own family. It was very moving.”
l A Story Of the Pretoria Pit Disaster is available at £12.99.
Andrea will be signing copies of the book at Sweetens book shop in Bolton on Saturday, September 12
