A GROUP of urban explorers have transformed a neglected site into a memorial garden to remember 19 people who lost their lives in an explosion.
Burnley's Northern Monkeys, with the help of several local businesses and Burnley Council, turned a pile of discarded tyres on the Hapton Valley Colliery site into blooming flower beds, complete with specially designed name plaques to commemorate those who died.
The memorial tyre flower beds at Hapton Valley Colliery
Damion Whitton from the Northern Monkeys said: "We were helped massively by Burnley Council and our Facebook and YouTube followers, who donated money for flowers, and MKM building supplies and Travis Perkins donated soil.
"We also had volunteers help us, some of who had family working at the mine."
The memorial tyre flower beds at Hapton Valley Colliery
On March 22 1962, an explosion at the Burnley colliery killed 19 and seriously injured another 22 people.
Some who died were as young as 16 and were working in the number two district when the explosion happened, just after 9.45am.
The fish fossil found by Northern Monkeys
Mr Whitton said he and his fellow Northern Monkeys happened across the site by accident while searching for more fossils after they found a fish fossil in Burnley, believed to be 400million years old.
He added: "The reason were were even up at Hapton was to find the rubbish and look for more fossils."
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