 On 12 January 1918, a huge explosion tore through the workings and killed 156 men and boys, at a time as well when the Great War was in its fourth year.The pit never recovered from the disaster and closed in 1930, along with the entire workings of the Podmore Hall Collieries and Apedale Ironworks.Nowadays a monument records the terrible disaster that befell this small village in 1918.