A MIDDLEWICH man whose dad spent more than a decade as a miner has donated £500 to the site where he worked.

Roy Farnworth was a mechanical engineer at Astley Green Colliery for 11 years after joining as an apprentice in 1957.

Half a century on, his son Alan Farnworth, 52, has made the donation after selling his DIY-enthusiast dad’s power tools, and says he could think of no place more fitting to donate the money than the museum that now operates on the site.

He said: "We wanted to raise awareness of the museum and how good for the area it is.

“It is nice to go there as my dad used to maintain all the stuff round the museum in his job.

“He was a very proud pitman, as all those guys used to be. It was like a band of brothers.”

Roy went on to work at British Aerospace for three years after his pitman days, and long-haul Dreamliner pilot Alan – and his son who flies for British Airways – certainly inherited his love of flying.

The Astley Green Colliery Museum has the world’s biggest operating steam winding engine as well as the largest collection of colliery locomotives in the UK.

Roy's widow Pat, Alan and his daughter Sarah went to the museum to hand over the £500 donation last Sunday.