Scores of people gathered to see the unveiling of a memorial to miners who lost their lives at Leeds’s last working pit.
Eighty-six men and boys died during Allerton Bywater Colliery’s 117-year history, before its closure in 1992.
On Saturday, a procession, led by Kippax Brass Band, went from Brigshaw High School through the town to the former colliery site.
A service was held at the entrance to the new millennium community built on the site, during which the names of the dead were read out, and wreaths laid at the spot.
Leeds City Council leader Keith Wakefield unveiled the memorial, designed by Castleford artist Harry Malkin, a former Fryston Colliery miner.
The Allerton Silkstone branch banner, which has been on display in Leeds Civic Hall since the colliery closed in March 1992, was returned to the village for the day.
The memorial includes four mining-themed panels, one on each side of an imaginary pit cage. One shows the original Allerton double-decked cage with men sitting on the bottom deck and stooped in the confined space of the top deck.
The second panel has two miners roof-bolting. The third panel is themed on a powerful Dosco Road Header machine that was used to rip out the coal and stone in order to form new roadways underground.
The final scene depicts the Allerton Silkstone NUM Branch members marching through the community displaying their banner.
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