A NEW service to mark the anniver- sary of the Pretoria Pit disaster is to be held this year.

Westhoughton Town Council voted to hold an additional service in Ditchfield Gardens on December 21.

The idea was put forward by Cllr Ryan Bat- tersby and approved by the rest of the council at a meeting.

The new service will take place next to the bronze statue of a kneeling miner at about 7.40am.

It will be conducted by the Reverend Gary Lawson, Rector of St Bartholomew’s Parish Church in Westhoughton.

Cllr Battersby said: “I thought it was only right to incorporate the new statue in some way, after the previous town council, 2007 to 2011, spent so much time and effort on it.

“There will be a few prayers, a poem or reading, then at 7.50am, the exact time of the blast, two maroons will be fired from the churchyard to start and end a two minutes’ silence.” Cllr Battersby also proposed that instead of laying flowers, Westhoughton Town Mayor, Cllr Harry Bowling, will tie a handkerchief around the miner’s neck.

The annual 10am service at St Bartholomew's Church will still go ahead as normal when former town mayor, Cllr Brian Clare, will be remembered.

Cllr Clare, who died in July, was funda- mental in organising the town’s commemo rative events to mark the centenary of the disaster last year. His wife Annie also died last month. On December 21, 1910, a total of 344 men and boys died after a faulty lamp sparked an explosion.

It remains the third worst mining disaster in British history. Sculptress Jane Robins created a permanent statue which was commissioned by the town council and unveiled during last year’s memorial events.