A WORLD-CLASS MINERS’ TRIBUTE
Sculpture project aims to immortalise faces of 40 former miners in ‘world class’ tribute to area’s heritage
Sculptures immortalise faces of town’s mine workers
IT WILL be a permanent reminder of the hard work and bravery of thousands of men and women who worked in Doncaster’s pits, and a poignant reflection on something once so intrinsic to a community but now gone forever.
There is less than a fortnight to go in a crowdfunding campaign to forge 40 of their faces in bronze as part of a “world class piece of art” celebrating the borough’s mining heritage.
More than £100,000 of the £130,000 target has already been raised, and Doncaster Council, which is behind the project , is calling on the public, business and local groups to help it make its vision a reality.
The project dates back over a year, when the Suffolk-based sculptor, Laurence Edwards, was chosen to produce the artwork.
He has since made many trips to South Yorkshire, spending
Learning these communities still exist has been extraordinary. Sculptor Laurence Edwards, who was chosen to produce the artwork.
time with former miners at welfare clubs and community buildings, hearing their stories of life underground and what working in a mining village or town meant to them,
More than 20 miners have already been immortalised in clay, ready for the final bronzes, and while he makes their portraits, Mr Edwards hears their stories, which are filmed by students.
The stories, Mr Edwards said, had shaped the project. Each each will be used in the final sculpture, which see the bronze heads of 50 local people cut into rock, and a 6ft bronze miner, listening to their stories.
He told the Yorkshire Post: “The idea evolved beautifully, and grew out of what people were telling me.
“Learning that these communities still exist, and the bond between these people, has been extraordinary. I’d often find myself driving down the A1 after spending a few days up in Doncaster, almost feeling a bit sad, that I was returning to somewhere that didn’t have this shared past and passion.
“Each story will be available on a website, and you will be able to scan the sculpture to watch each person’s story. It will be an incredible digital archive, with the sculpture being the key to it.” For Keith Marshall, who began work at Brodsworth Colliery at 15, being part of the project is a chance for his heritage to be remembered by future generations. “Back then, everything moved around coal. There was a pit in every village,” he said. “Now, my grandchildren have never seen a piece of it. There’s no obvious sign of what once was.
“This will be something that my grandchildren can take their grandchildren to, and learn our history.”
Mr Marshall, 74, of Mexborough, worked at Brodsworth for 30 years until 1990, at one point, getting up at 4.30am to work at the newsagent’s he bought with his wife, then clocking on at the pit. “It was hard, dangerous work, but the mates that you had, the camaraderie, made it,” he said.