Monday 23 August 2010

Disaster

The Fatal Bogs Disaster of 1910 (Prudhoe Heritage collection)
Cottages near West Wylam Colliery were demolished by falling trees as heavy rain washed away the bankside. Men returned from work to discover that they had lost their families and their homes.
This is a piece of local history I didn't know about and I want to find out more. I think I know the place but I'd like to be sure, and if I am right, there's only a roundabout at the bottom where water still pours down the hillside in heavy rain.
Little things like this can spark an idea for someone who writes. The finished story may not be about the West Wylam community, but the incident will be woven in somehow. It may be the inciting incident , the thing that starts a series of changes in a story that tells what happens to those men, the few survivors, when all the helpers have gone home and the water is still pouring down the hillside.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

You can find an account of the disaster in the Hexham Courant dated April 4th 1985- this was taken from the original account which is also in the Hexham Courant dated about 11th February 1910- microfilm available in Hexham Library. Good luck with your research

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