In May 2019, the Development Trust held a Mining Heritage Exhibition with contributions in the form of memorabilia from ex miners and families. We also liaised with the Scottish Mining Museum in Newtongrange who also provided artifacts for the 5 day Exhibition.
This was a huge success and was attended by approximately 400 people including every child from our Primary School with the co-operation of the Head Teacher. 20 volunteers helped to make this happen.
An evening of memories was also held, attended by a group of ex miners with a slideshow instigating lots of stories and memories. This was an amusing social occasion bringing many old working friends together.
These events also raised the question of why the District doesn’t have a Memorial to the 30+ miners who died working in Kingshill No.2 and Wilsontown Colliers.
This has formed the start of a new project aimed at providing a suitable Memorial for the community. We also used a later event as a platform to display to the community what the Trust has achieved with funding received and also allow them to vote for what they would like to see as a Mining Memorial and where in the village they would like it positioned.
With community consultation complete, the decision was taken to have a traditionally styled bronze statue of a Miner to be positioned at the West entrance to the village adjacent to Longdales. Initial enquiries indicate that the costings for this could be around £30-60,000.
The timescale to produce the statue could be 1 year to eighteen months. The Trust will work to source funding for this project from a number of areas together with public fundraising.
The Trust met with Council members to agree the exact position and consider any specific groundwork required and health & safetly issues.
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