THE 50th year memorial service for Knockshinnoch was organised by New Cumnock Community Council, who had come up with the idea of a remembrance cairn to commemorate the disaster.

The group had been approached by several survivors who wanted the village to have a lasting piece of history to mark the event. So former Community councillor and miner, the Late Douglas Blackwood, enlisted the help of a group of art students at Cumnock Academy to design a cairn.

Aided by their Art and Design teacher, Mrs Stephanie Lightbowan, the fifth year Cumnock Academy pupils embarked on the ambitious project and, over a four month period, they researched the mining disaster with its miraculous rescue effort and pooled ideas on a design for the cairn.

Speaking to the Chronicle in 1999, Douglas Blackwood said: 'The youngsters were really enthusiastic. They came up to the site, had a look about and listened intently as they were told the story of the incident and the epic rescue.' In the end, eight creative designs were submitted to the community council for consideration, with each student contributing something different. They tried as far as possible to relate their ideas to the disaster and the design chosen was in the shape of a shovel with the cairn in the centre. The area was to have 116 paving stones, one for each of the men trapped and 13 red ones to signify the number of lives lost. A sundial on top of the cairn would bear the inscription: 'To remember Knockshinnoch 1950 where the peat valley ahead collapsed killing 13 miners and trapping 116".

Melanie Naimby, then 18, of Cumnock was one of the pupils involved. She said the project gave her valuable experience in design and she has just started a course in Media Theory and Production at the University of Paisley in Ayr. She said: 'We did investigative drawings of background details like miners hats and lamps and zoomed in on the details to incorporate these into the design. I learned quite a bit about what happened at Knockshinnoch - I did not know all that much about it beforehand. The project also allowed us to appreciate the disaster from an older person"s point of view and we became more involved in the history of the area.' That view was also shared by Emma Hyslop, then 17, of Cumnock, who said: 'Everyone I spoke to seemed to have known somebody in the mine or who had helped in the rescue, but I knew almost nothing about the disaster beforehand. The tour of the area put it all into context and our art teacher also gave us miners memorabilia. Each student then made their own feature for incorporation into the cairn. And the dedication service at Knockshinnoch, with all the people there, was quite moving.' Emma is now studying Media Communication at Kilmarnock College.

Gordon Smith, then 17, of Cumnock, moved away from art after he left school and is now an electrician in Ayr. He knew more about the disaster as some of his relatives were directly involved. His pickaxe design now forms part of the cairn and, although he has not been see the finished item yet, he said he really enjoyed the art project.

Teacher Mrs Lightbowan said: 'The project was a great success and the students got a great deal of enjoyment out of designing the cairn. And it was especially nice for them to see their work made permanent.' Scottish Coal supplied materials for the cairn and helped out with the planning and organisation. Nick Emery, a Senior Surveyor at Scottish Coal who was directly involved with the project, said: 'Bearing in mind that the heritage of Cumnock and New Cumnock is based on mining, we were more than happy to help the people of the community commemorate the disaster.