She harassed and begged him on bended knees, not to go, he didn’t really have to do this final shift, and with the new baby on the way it was far too dangerous in that condemned mine.

Barney Meadows listened intently to all that Euphemia (Effy) said, but was deaf to his wife’s pleas. He would go to prove his solidarity with his comrades, he would go because they expected him to, he was a miner through and through, knocking back the pints in the Miners Welfare with the lads, playing the cornet in the brass band,

attending all the union meetings and racing his pigeons every weekend. He was the liveliest and most cheerful member of the coalface crew.

He would go because the pit was closing down right after his shift. Closing down in this year of 1963, after eighty years of record breaking, best-coal tonnage. He would go because he had a special job to do. He had to kill someone!

Stuart Hibbert was Barney’s best pal. They were inseparable, growing up together, going to the same school and getting into the same scrapes with the local police. They worked together operating the giant drill at the face, shared virtually everything together and three months ago; Stuart had missed a shift owing to a stomach upset. It was as Barney was returning home, tired and weary, that a young female neighbour stopped him in the street and told him Stuart had spent several hours with Effy that day when he was claiming sickness. Now it seemed the two men were sharing Effy’s favours. The more Barney fretted and fumed over this deceit, the more convinced he became that their expected baby was not his. As they went down in the cage together, Barney knew one of them would not be returning. He would pick his moment when Jake, the third member of their “face-crew” was hauling back the loaded truck and then he would strike. Stuart wouldn’t know what hit him, it was better than he deserved, for betraying a trust. “Barney would have walked through water for him and now he had to pay like all treacherous dogs!” There was a weak roof support at the face and before Jake got back with the empty truck, Barney, having rendered Stuart unconscious would have smashed it down, causing a roof collapse over the body.

The hours ticked slowly away and then came the moment for action. A single blow to the back of the neck from Barney’s concealed crowbar sent Stuart crashing to the floor. Jake was well out of earshot and it was a moments work to disable the timber roof support. At first nothing happened and then came a mighty roar as tons of earth came thundering down. It took Barney by surprise as it started behind him and then the two of them were trapped. As he listened he could hear more cave-ins rumbling in the distance and realised rescuers would not get to them before the remaining air gave out.