WE learnt this week of 12 boys and their football coach were found alive after being trapped for nine days in a cave in Thailand.

Officials are trying to find a way to get the group outs safely. However the chances of the rescuers were dressed like these men on the right were slim.

Meet the rescue team at Town Bent Colliery, in Oswaldtwistle, in the 1850s.

The men were tasked with finding and rescuing workers who had been trapped after a mine collapse.

The team wore rather unusual, but high spec clothing for the time, with headwear, breathing apparatus, lamps and knee pads.

The colliery was one of 15 coal mines operating in Oswaldtwistle and Church during the 19th century.

At its peak, East Lancashire, centred on Burnley, Accrington and Rossendale, had 50 pits.

Coal mining was second only to textiles as the largest employer.

At the turn of the 20th century, Oswaldtwistle’s three major mines, Aspen, Lower Darwen and Town Bent employed roughly 1,000 men and boys, with a lot of family’s male members working there.

Town Bent closed in 1925.

The men in the picture look to be taking part in a competition organised by the coal owners’ association.

The bravery and courage to find trapped miners is to be admired.