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A ceremony has been held to mark the 100th anniversary of a disaster which killed 26 miners.
It marked the start of work on a memorial in what was the mining village for Hamstead Colliery in Birmingham.
The 26 men died after becoming trapped when a fire broke out in the shaft of one of the country's deepest coal mines on 4 March 1908.
St Paul's Church Hamstead is displaying items left behind, including a message scrawled by a 17-year-old miner.
Across 500 sprawling acres of what is now part of Great Barr, Hamstead Colliery mined coal from 1878 for almost 90 years.
The church is displaying items such as boots and helmets in tribute to the men.
It also has the final message which was scrawled on a shaft door by 17-year-old Joe Hodgkiss, which says "The Lord Preserve Us".
The home of one of the miners, Edwin Johnson, still stands on the Old Walsall Road.
One poignant photograph shows the five brothers of Edwin, who was a father of two young children, waiting at the pit for his body to be recovered.
BBC News.
It marked the start of work on a memorial in what was the mining village for Hamstead Colliery in Birmingham.
The 26 men died after becoming trapped when a fire broke out in the shaft of one of the country's deepest coal mines on 4 March 1908.
St Paul's Church Hamstead is displaying items left behind, including a message scrawled by a 17-year-old miner.
Across 500 sprawling acres of what is now part of Great Barr, Hamstead Colliery mined coal from 1878 for almost 90 years.
The church is displaying items such as boots and helmets in tribute to the men.
It also has the final message which was scrawled on a shaft door by 17-year-old Joe Hodgkiss, which says "The Lord Preserve Us".
The home of one of the miners, Edwin Johnson, still stands on the Old Walsall Road.
One poignant photograph shows the five brothers of Edwin, who was a father of two young children, waiting at the pit for his body to be recovered.
BBC News.