A MEMORIAL bench has been installed to remember coal miners – including the son of a Bolton couple – killed at a pit.

The seat is a tribute to the victims who died over the years at Agecroft Colliery in Pendlebury where many Boltonians worked until it closed in 1990.

Among those at the dedication was Edgworth father Brian Stott, whose eldest son Adam died in an accident at the age of 19 in 1981 in what was the last fatality at the mine. Also there was Jim Lord from Farnworth, a former Bolton councillor and former National Union of Mineworkers branch secretary at the site.

Both Brian and Jim are members of the executive committee of The Friends of Agecroft Colliery who helped organise the installation of the bench with £4,000 of donations. The bench is made of solid oak and has a carved sculpture of a miner sitting on it made by a chainsaw artist. The miner's Davy lamp is inscribed with Adam's check number.

The bench was dedicated on the anniversary of the day of Adam's fatal accident by the ceremonial Mayor of Salford, Councillor Karen Garrido, and is situated outside Swinton Civic Centre in Swinton, the headquarters of Salford Council.