When Michael Caldwell, from Stratford-upon-Avon,
purchased wartime picture postcards on ebay he could have little notion
of the fascinating journey he was about to take. It led him to visit the town and meet a descendent of a brave band of brothers.
With pits prone to devastating fires,
explosions and disasters, coal miners took their lives in their hands
when they went to work at the industry's early 20th century peak. In
the first two decades of the last century alone some 2,000 miners were
killed while at work in 31 major disasters at the coal face. And
the victims of those disasters were remembered in a macabre and
somewhat unusual way - postcards were rushed out to pay tribute to those
who died and those who fought to save them.