THE family of a former miner who died in December 2015 has donated £500 to the site he worked at half a century ago.

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

It is now being run as a museum by volunteers, and after selling the DIY enthusiast's power tools his family could think of no more fitting place to give the money to.

His son Alan 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 had a keen interest in aviation after joining Leigh Air Training Corps when he was 13.

He worked at British Aerospace for three years following his pitman days.

Alan, from Middlewich, has inherited his dad's love of flying.

He is a long-haul Dreamliner pilot and his son Steven flies commercial aircraft for British Airways.

Father-of-two Alan, 52, a captain for a Norwegian airline, said: “My dad's love of aviation was born in Leigh.

“He inspired me to join the air corps and my son Steven.”

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.