Funeral Service

On Sunday an impressive and solemn service was held in the vicinity of Burley pits, when the Rev. W.W. Sandford read the burial service of the Church of England. The service was announced to take place at 3 pm. but long before that hour some thousands of people had assembled on the pit bank. Then the Rev rector took his stand in the field adjoining the scene of the disaster with between 14.000 and 15.000 people present.

The burial service commenced with the words, "I am the resurrection and the life" and the 90th Psalm, "Lord thou hast been my refuge".
The service continued including Easter hymns sang with Great Spirit. There were many pitmen present and the rector said; "Was there any class of men upon the face of the earth exposed to greater dangers and perils than miners." They went down the pit in the morning carrying their life, as it were, in their hands and when they descended into the bowels of the earth, they never new that they would come up alive again.

It was a solemn service listened to with greatest of order and attention by the assembled thousands. The hymn "Christ will gather in his own" concluded the service.