SPORTS and social club members have struck gold where men once dug for coal.

The first sod has been cut in preparation for new extensions at Astley and Tyldesley Miners Welfare Club.

A Coalfield Regeneration Trust grant of £160,000 is putting money back into a community which exists because of the vast mineral wealth which lay beneath its feet.

Club chairman and former colliery steward Derek Jolley, of Astley Street, Tyldesley, worked with his father at the Gin Pit and when that closed in 1955 he transferred to nearby Nook.

"These extensions will be a great improvement," said Mr Jolley who was asked to perform the honours because of his long association with the club.

Mr Jolley has been a club member since 1948 and first served on the committee in 1966. His wife Phyllis joined the club in the late 1940s in order to play tennis there. They took over the stewardship of the club in 1981 and retired in 1995.

The Gin Pit village club is the base for a host of year-round activities.

Cricket, bowls, tennis, cycle speedway and soccer are outdoor activities which have a big following there and the new extensions will provide additional changing room space and shower facilities.