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January To May 2005 News

European Network Of Mining Regions

The two year European Network of Mining Regions project began earlier this year. Funded by the European Union's Regional Development Fund 'Interreg IIIC' programme, the project will focus on the challenges faced by European mining regions, especially those which have issues relating to the decline of the industy.

More details on the aims and objectives on the project can be found on the UK Post-Mining Alliance website. The Eden Project, one of the Post-Mining Alliance partners, is leading the participation of the Cornish mining region in the project.

Somerset Coal Canal

An exhibition on the Somerset Coal Canal was held at the Museum of Bath At Work from 1 May to 31 July 2005. The event coincided with the 200th anniversary of the official opening of the Combe Hay flight of locks on the canal. More details on the canal can be found on the Somerset Coal Canal Society website.

European Mining Week

Radstock Museum in Somerset took part in European Mining Week (8-15 May 2005) along with partners from five other countries. This partnership has obtained funding from the European Union's Culture 2000 programme and Radstock will be putting on an exhibition in the week as part of the project, which is called 'Memories of Mining'.

For further details on the project go to the Radstock Museum website.

New Landscapes From Old

Former coal mining sites could be transformed into new landscapes if plans by architect, landscaper and writer Charles Jencks go ahead. He has been asked by Scottish Coal to work on the Damside mine site near Shotts and at Allanton in Lanarkshire.

More information can be found on the Scottish Coal website news pages. Jencks' work was featured on the ITV television programme 'The South Bank Show' in an edition broadcast on 3 April 2005.

King Edward Mine Open Day

The King Edward Mine Preservation Group invited visitors to the mine site at Troon in Cornwall for a Grand Open Day on Sunday 1 May. Events during the day included working demonstrations of the restored tin processing mill, demonstrations of vanning, mine rescue, vintage tractors, cars and engines, flying model aircraft, mine models, performances by the Camborne Youth Band and a Male Voice Choir, and the Childrens' Art Competition.

More information on the mine and can be found on the Trevithick Trust website.

Memories Of Aberfan

An exhibition of photographs taken after the 1966 Aberfan disaster in South Wales ran until 18 June 2005 at The National Library of Wales. The images by American photographer I. C. Rapoport showed the after effects of the disaster, caused by a coal waste tip partly collapsing and covering buildings in the village, including the local school. The tragedy left 144 people dead including 114 schoolchildren.

The exhibition was called 'Aberfan - The Days After' and a book of the same name will be published. Further details can be found at the I. C. Rapoport online gallery and in The Guardian.

Gresford Colliery Disaster

Details of the 1934 Gresford Colliery Disaster in North Wales are now available on the Wrexham Council website. Information on the website was used for an exhibition at Bersham Heritage Centre near Wrexham. The exhibition, called 'The Real Price Of Coal' was on display from September 2004 until March 2005. The website includes a virtual version of the memorial book that lists all the victims of the disaster, a memorial gallery of related images connected to the disaster and a responses area where people can email in their memories and family recollections of or opinions about the disaster.

The story of Minera lead mines is also available on the website.

Mining Images At The National Archives

A series of mining images is available to see online at The National Archives website. They are examples of the many records held there relating to mining in the UK and elsewhere. To view the images, go to The National Archives Image Library.

Going For Gold

The annual British gold panning championships were held in May 2005 at its usual location at Wanlockhead Lead Mining Museum in Scotland. Information on gold and panning can be found on the museum's website.

Big Pit Could Be 'Museum Of The Year'

The Big Pit National Mining Museum of Wales at Blaenafon is one of the finalists in this years Gulbenkian Prize. The museum faces competition from the Coventry Transport Museum, the Time and Tide Museum of Great Yarmouth Life in Norfolk, and the National Railway Museum at Shildon, Co. Durham for the £100,000 prize which will be presented to the 'museum of the year' on 26 May at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

Like the other contestants, Big Pit has received financial help from the Heritage Lottery Fund and is based in a World Heritage Site. Visitors are taken 300ft down by ex-miners to experience working conditions underground and once back on the surface they can visit the pithead baths, the winding engine house and the blacksmith's workshop.

The State Of Former Coalmining Areas

Some former coalmining areas in the UK are recovering more quickly than others, according to a report produced in March 2005 by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University. The smaller mining areas in Leicestershire and Warwickshire are recovering well, but other locations such as South Wales and Northumberland are making slower progress.

It will take another six or seven years to replace the lost coal jobs in Northumberland and even longer in South Wales. The report estimates that another 90,000 jobs need to be created to counteract the coal industry jobs lost since the 1980s. The coal industry employed 229,000 workers at 170 collieries in England and Wales in 1981 and the figure in 2005 is a workforce of only 7,000 at eight pits.

The full report can be read at the CRESR website.

A Salty Tale

The historic salt industry in Cheshire which led to the growth of towns such as Northwich has caused current day problems. The danger that parts of the rock salt mines under Northwich could collapse has led to strict planning laws in an area where subsidence is already an issue. But work on a land stabilisation project with £32 million funding from English Partnerships started in February 2005 to overcome these problems and allow the town to use land previously thought unsafe to build on.

The brine which currently fills the mines will be replaced with a mixture of pulverised fuel ash and cement and pumped via new pipelines from a control centre to injection bore holes drilled into the mines.

North East Mining Exhibition

Memories of New Herrington Colliery near Sunderland where revived on 18 February 2005 when a new exhibition compiled by the New Herrington Miners' Banner Partnership with the help of Northumbria University was opened. The full story can be read on the Sunderland Echo website.

Read All About It

A new book on the history of the Cannock Chase coalfields in the West Midlands is nearing completion, thanks to a timely injection of cash from Staffordshire County Council. The book is being written by the Cannock Chase Mining Historical Society but a lottery grant of £13,500 awarded three years ago will no longer cover higher than expected publication costs, caused by the book being longer than originally planned.

The County Council gave the society £750 when it became aware of the society's problem and this has enabled work on the book to be finished for publication.

Mine Of Information

The new use planned for a former colliery at Woodhorn near Ashington in Northumberland is on schedule and planners working on the heritage and archive centre to be opened on the site now have a logo to promote the £16 million development. The new complex, which is due to open in the summer of 2006 will have exhibition space and a study centre. The building will have a serrated roofline to represent the cutting edges of a giant coalmining machine. The new logo design incorporates an old pit wheel linking to the roof of the new galleries now being built.

The project is being developed jointly by Northumberland County and Wansbeck District councils. The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded the development £10 million, with further funding support coming from the two councils, the Northumberland Strategic Partnership, regional development agency One NorthEast, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust and Northern Rock.

West Country Holes

Villagers in Combe Down near Bath in South West England heard in late February 2005 that money is going to be made available to fill in disused limestone mines below their houses. Bath and North East Somerset council and English Partnerships submitted a bid for funding to fill the mines in, as holes are still appearing and posing a risk to hundreds of homes and buildings.

Over £154 million has been allocated for the work from English Partnerships land stabilisation programme over a period of five years. More information on the Combe Down Stone Mines Project can be found on the Bath and North East Somerset council website and on The Guardian newspaper website.

Reprieve For Welbeck Colliery

UK Coal announced in early February 2005 that production was to be phased out at Mansfield's Welbeck Colliery in North Nottinghamshire due to geological problems. But the colliery, which has been producing coal since 1912 has been given a reprieve after new working practices were agreed by the 520-strong workforce to increase productivity. This includes longer but fewer shifts and streamlined payment systems.

UK Coal In Dispute With Drax

Following recent announcements about colliery closures, UK Coal faces further problems as it is unable to meet the terms of an agreement to supply coal to Drax Power Station near Selby in North Yorkshire. Drax has indicated that it could cost up to £15 million to find alternative supplies and that legal action could follow.

UK Coal's colliery at Kellingley, near Pontefract, was the only supplier to Drax but plans to expand output there were halted in January 2005 and up to 150 jobs may have to go. The supply problem has been made worse by the closure of the last colliery in the Selby coalfield, which used to be an alternative supply source.

Sustainable Homes For Old Colliery Site

A low cost energy efficient home built for a Delivering Sustainable Communities Summit held in Manchester in January 2005 will be moved later in the year to a new community being built at a former colliery site near Castleford in Yorkshire. The colliery at Allerton Bywater closed in 1992 and the site was chosen for a "millennium village". The village will have housing and offices using energy saving devices. A new community centre and library have already been built.

Ellington Colliery Closure

UK Coal announced on Wednesday 26 January 2005 that it had been forced to end production at Ellington Colliery near Morpeth in Northumberland, leading to the loss of 340 jobs. The colliery was the last deep mine in North East England and was shut for safety reasons following the penetration of water on the colliery coal face and “unacceptable risks” associated with extracting limited nearby reserves.

UK Coal issued a press release stating that millions of gallons of water had flooded current workings at the colliery and that extensive round-the-clock pumping during the previous fortnight had been unsuccessful. Hydrological experts have estimated that over 100 million gallons could be contained in old workings and the surrounding strata from which the water could be seeping.

Ellington has produced around 12,000 tonnes of coal a week, most of which was supplied to the nearby Alcan power station. Supplies of coal to Alcan were being maintained from stocks of around 150,000 tonnes at the colliery, and surface mining operations elsewhere in the region.