The latest recording by the Wingates Band commemorates the Pretoria Pit Disaster which occurred one hundred years ago this year.

On the 21st of December 1910, there was a massive underground explosion in the Pretoria Pit in Westhoughton Lancashire, thought to have been caused by a build up of gas from a roof collapse the previous day.

To learn more about the Pretoria Pit Disaster go to http://www.staveley-genealogy.com/pretoria_pit.htm.

Local families  suffered enormously in the tragedy, in total 344 men and boys died and  one lady lost four sons and two brothers.

The CD which features “In Pitch Black” a new composition by the band’s own composer in residence Lucy Pankhurst will be launched at a concert at Westhoughton Parish Church on the 20th of November.