A MEMORIAL service took place on Wednesday to remember the 344 men and boys who died in one of Britain's worst mining disasters.
They were killed on this day in 1910 when a huge gas explosion tore through Pretoria Pit, in Westhoughton.
The day shift had just begun and the men and boys were working underground at Hulton Colliery.
The victims were being remembered in a service at St Bartholomew's Parish church and the laying of wreaths at the memorial in the graveyard.
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