At last, I found the words to the Peter Thorpe song referred to in the OPs above, courtesy of the estimable Doug Olsen, who learned the song from the author himself in 1979.
Doug recorded the song on his 2006 CD of poems, songs and readings "A Single Voice" (Tosspot Records TD147).

THE LOFTHOUSE MINE DISASTER
(by Peter Thorpe, Yorkshire)

Come ye people, come and listen
Of a story to relate
It’s a tale of pit disaster
When seven miners met their fate
Underground boys, underground boys
Seven miners met their fate.

It was in the village of Lofthouse
In the year of seventy-three
Seven miners worked through the night shift
Not knowing daylight no more they’d see
No more they’d see, boys   (etc)

Then suddenly without warning,
The face it did burst out
And a rushing wall of water
Put every man on that face to rout
That wall of water etc

The word has spread across the country
Seven miners trapped have been
Rescue teams with their equipment
Were quickly rushed to the scene
With all speed boys,   etc

For five long days they battled on
For to reach a pocket of air
When they reached it, it was empty
Which throwed them in deep despair
All their hopes, boys, all their hopes, boys
Was shot up then and there.

Charlie Korton’s body
Was the only one they found
The rest were then sealed in
That their final resting ground
Now a monument on the hillside
In memorial is found

When you’re sitting by your fire
In the comfort of your home
Remember these poor miners
How they died in that dreadful tomb
Underground boys, underground boys
They died in that dreadful tomb.