Huskar's legacy

In putting together a dazzling stained glass window, the local

community have done just that. By coming together in their hundreds in Silkstone, villagers, from children to pensioners, have marked in suitably solemn style one of the most appalling losses of life in any pit community.

Remembering the details of the incident, when the children drowned after a ventilation shaft was swamped during heavy rain, will always be important. As the industrial landscape of South Yorkshire has changed over the last 30 years, this becomes more significant as it is not just an act of memorial, but also about remembering a lost way of life.

Silkstone is just one village, on the edge of the Pennines west of Barnsley, but the new window will bring to mind all those killed in the early days of the mining industry. Unveiled yesterday at the start of a flower festival in the church, the stained glass speaks for South Yorkshire and ensures that while the triumphs of the industry are remembered, its tragedies are never forgotten.