YOUNG people are to bring the area's coal mining history to life through poetry, dance and music.

Teenagers at the No Smoke Without Fire project have been visiting museums and hearing first-hand tales of life in the pits from former miners to research the topic.

Their findings will be used to create art during a series of workshops in music production, creative writing and film-making at Phoenix Youth Theatre.

And the whole process is being filmed to create a DVD of historical information for use as a research tool by schoolchildren.

Bolton Community College student Adrian Lancaster, aged 16, of Breightmet, has been involved with the project for six months.

He said: "It's been excellent. From talking to the miners, you can just imagine what it would be like to be down there doing it yourself.

"We spoke to one miner who told us about women working down the mines, carrying sacks of coal on their backs, which I never knew about before."

Mining in Bolton expanded rapidly during the industrial revolution and by 1869 there were 59 pits in the Bolton district.

Deep mining ceased in the 1960s; but not before many lost their lives. Seven men and 10 boys drowned in a flood at Ladyshore Colliery, Lever Bank, in 1835.

Fifty years later, an explosion at Clifton Hall Colliery, near Kearsley, killed 176, while 344 miners died at Pretoria Pit, Westhoughton, in 1910.

Project co-ordinator Ben Mellor said the research was nearing completion and more young people were needed to get involved in the workshops after Easter.

"We will be running performance, spoken word and MC workshops and we might try to put poetry or rap to music to make a visual presentation. Also, we might do some of the filming at different locations linked to mining."

Anyone who would like to get involved in the project should call Mr Mellor on 01204 535861.