01/01/2017 Midlands Today

Good evening. late news at 10:35.

75 years ago today, a massive explosion at a Staffordshire

colliery claimed the lives of 57 miners.

Those men and their families have been remembered

at a special memorial to the New Year's Day

At Holy Trinity Church in Burslem, the names of the lost

57 men and boys were killed in the Sneyd pit.

The youngest was just 15 years of age.

The explosion happened at eight o'clock on the morning of January

Almost all the miners there were killed immediately.

He was the 39th miner they got out and he had

an electric light on, which I suppose was

a battery-operated light, but some of them hadn't

What makes this such a tragedy is these men would never have

normally worked on New Year's Day, but they'd been called

in on this particular occasion to support the war effort.

I did work and made friends with some of the survivors

and the stories they gave me were just incredible.

Those brave men that went in, the rescue teams that

This afternoon, the hymns and prayers here were dedicated

to the victims of the disaster and their families.

People from my own congregation said they just whispered the name

of somebody who was close to them because it was a very major

industry in the Potteries for many, many decades.

The Sneyd pit, a workhorse of the Staffordshire coalfields,

But today, the scars and scale of human suffering in a small

Police are appealing for witnesses after a man died following being hit

by a car while out celebrating the New Year.

The 43-year-old, who hasn't been named, was hit by a car

on Wolverhampton Road in Sandwell just before eight

A 46-year-old woman driver is assisting officers

A 13-year-old schoolboy who died from his injuries

after being knocked down in the Black Country last

week has been described by his parents as an "amazing,

Sean Williams, from Bushbury in Wolverhampton, was hit

by a car in Wednesfield last Thursday afternoon.

The driver of the car is helping police with their investigations.

Coventry has been praised as an example of "Britain

at its best" by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In his New Year message, recorded in Coventry,

The Most Reverend Justin Welby said the city's response to its

devastation in the Second World War set an example of reconciliation.

Surrendering to the demands of television lighting,

the Archbishop of Canterbury prepares to deliver his New Year's

Justin Welby returned to Coventry, the city where he started out

as a clergyman, a city whose wartime suffering and forgiveness, he says,

The story of this city says so much that is true

about Britain at its best, about our courage, our standing up

to tyranny, how we stand alongside the suffering and defeated,

how we stand for human dignity and hope.

The Archbishop visited a drop-in centre for refugees,

people he called "a blessing to our way of life".

And he drew his message to a close by focusing on an issue that has

divided so many parts of the country.

The EU referendum was a tough campaign and it has left divisions.

But I know that if we look at our roots, our history,

our culture and our Christian tradition, if we reach back

into what is best in this country, we will find a path

towards reconciling the differences that have divided us.

From Coventry to Canterbury, the Archbishop believes that looking

back can only help us prepare for the future.

Four of Worcestershire's minor injury units -

at Bromsgrove, Malvern, Evesham and Tenbury -

have been closed today to enable staff to help out at the county's

Demand for services at the Worcestershire Royal

and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch has been high

on what the local NHS describe as "an unusually busy" New Year's

Two rugby results from the Premiership today.

Gloucester went down 13-12 to Northampton,

but a great win for Worcester, who beat Harlequins 24-17.

And one football result in the National League -

Let's have a look at the weather now with Alex Hamilton.

Good evening and a happy new year to you.

We are expecting some brighter weather in the new year

after all of that wet weather we had earlier today thanks to this area

of high pressure that's starting to push in.

As we have a look at the detail tonight, that rain clears away

to the south and then we're just expecting the odd shower here

Dropping very cold, though, with lows of minus three Celsius.

We are expecting a bright and frosty start tomorrow morning.

Not quite wall-to-wall sunshine, but some decent sunny

Feeling very chilly, though, with highs of only around

Some bright weather for the next couple of days.

I'll be back with our late bulletin just after 10.50pm.

Until then, have a good evening and a very Happy New Year.

Good evening. Well, to Bake Off 2017, the weather has been fairly

mixed, wet and cloudy in the South, colder but clearer further north.

This was taken in County Down earlier in the day, plenty of

sunshine there, but with clear skies by day, a cold nights tonight. That

will fill the south across the country, the cloud and rain clearing

through the early hours of Monday morning across that area. This is

how it is looking first thing, cold and frosty, colder than this in the

countryside, still some wintry showers for northern Scotland into

the north-east of England, so a chance of icy stretches first thing

on untreated surfaces. Through the day, Monday is looking quite decent,

mostly dry with wintry sunshine and light winds, still