Many miners followed their fathers, uncles, brothers and friends down the mines, despite the many pit disasters, Mr Smith explained.
One man included in the exhibition was begged by his mother not to, he said.
“All his friends are mining in Blackhall, his mother’s adamant that she doesn’t want him to go to the pit because she’s lost her husband aged 33 down that mine, and he still went,” he said.
“Every pit has some kind of tragedy, they’ve all got one, and Easington’s was terrible, still remembered, yet they all went down.”
