Research this week has shed new light on Keighley's historic coal mining industry.

The town - better known for its engineering and textile roots - also boasted many pits in the early part of the last century.

And Keighley's final working mine - Howden Colliery - holds its own special place in folklore. The pit, which continued to operate until the late 1920s, was among the smallest in Britain with just two underground workers.

The Riddlesden mine - which was owned by Pitt and Simpson - is listed in the Colliery Year Book and Coal Trades Directory of 1927. The publication is among a wealth of documents and volumes held in the library of the National Coal Mining Museum near Wakefield.

On Tuesday I visited the archives and spoke to librarian Stephen Kee to investigate claims that the bodies of dead miners - victims of pit accidents - could still lie beneath Keighley's hills.

Documentary evidence of pit accidents prior to 1850, when the mines inspectorate was established, is sketchy. It is known that many workings existed in the Keighley district particularly in the Riddlesden, Denholme, South Craven and Worth Valley areas.

A geological survey of the Yorkshire coalfields revealed that two important faults crossed the district: one in a south-easterly direction through Glusburn, the other about parallel and along the north of Keighley Moor. But there were others including one at Cullingworth and another north of Lees Moor.

But by the second half of the 19th century - when the official recording of pit accidents began - much mining locally had ceased. Indeed a list of working pits produced in 1889 by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Mines showed just three locally - two at Denholme and one at Bradley.

Howden Colliery did not begin operating until the early 1920s, although Keighley News articles of the time report that many redundant passageways from previous workings were discovered during the exploratory work.

Mr Kee says that even now many more mine shafts exist than are actually recorded. And he adds that despite the lack of any supporting documentary evidence, it is extremely likely that some of Keighley's old workings will still conceal the victims of pit collapses. He says: "Often it was too dangerous or simply too expensive to try to recover the bodies. That is just as true in relatively modern times. Seven people killed at Lofthouse Colliery in 1973 remain buried there."

Local writer Doreen Lavin, a retired nursing lecturer, was swamped with phone calls after she appealed to Keighley News readers for information about an alleged pit disaster near Thwaites Brow. She had been told that the victims of the accident were still buried there.

Although no firm evidence about that incident has come to light, she has received considerable new information supporting the claims plus details of a similar alleged accident at Haworth.

"The response from people has been marvellous and I am grateful to everyone who has contacted me," she says.

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