Blidworth Welfare Band is a brass band with a mining heritage. “We started out in the late 19th century as the Stanton Hill Temperance Band” based in Sutton in Ashfield, the band later changed their name to the Stanton Hill Silver Prize Band until the coal industry paid an interest
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We should like to thank Thoresby Colliery Band for allowing us to provide a link to their moving rendition of Gresford, The Miner’s Hymn. On September 22nd 1934 an explosion at Gresford Colliery in The North Wales Coalfield near Wrexham killed 266 miners. Gresford, the Miners’ Hymn,, with its haunting
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In this post for International Women’s Day 2022 we are celebrating the strength of the women in our coalfield communities. We celebrate their strength, whether they were fighting pit closures, acting as trade union reps for their fellow workers, campaigning against the closure of welfares, holiday camps and rehabilitation centres.
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This week’s Mining Blog continues our celebration of Nottinghamshire’s Mining Brass Bands and features Shirebrook and Clipstone Miners Welfare Bands. “Brass Bands make music and in doing so create environments where people from all walks of life can flourish and develop, socially, educationally and artistically.” Mike Kilroy, Chairman, Brass Bands
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For a few weeks the Mining Blog will be celebrating the coal mining industry’s brass band tradition. Following Vesting Day in 1947, when the NCB became the employer of over 800,000 people and the owner of 950 pits, it also found itself the owner of a number of brass bands;
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The Nationalisation of the Coal Industry was barely a year old before ambitious plans for developing the training of new recruits was unveiled. Coal News announced in February 1948 ambitious plans for the establishment 0f juvenile residential training centres. These centres, planned to be run in cooperation with
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Alan Spencer, the current Notts NUM General Secretary, shares his recollections of his early years in mining with the Mining Blog. “I started my 37 years in the mining industry at Welbeck Colliery in 1974 just after the 74 strike. I started as everyone did in North Notts at Lound
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This is our last blog about the Derbyshire Miners Convalescent and Holiday Home. REMEMBRANCE We are REMEMBERING and celebrating the pleasure that it brought to so many mining families! RESISTANCE We are REMEMBERING the actions of RESISTANCE that took
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This is the full history of the origins of the Derbyshire Miners Convalescent Home and Miners Holiday Camp and this text is taken from the Derbyshire County Council Records Office website. Follow this link for the article: CalmView: Overview 19th century beginnings – Derbyshire Miners Association involvement A convalescent
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For our Mining Blog this week we are sharing a wonderful account of a visit to Skeggy Miners Holiday Camp by Eric Eaton in the early 1950s. I spent a few holidays at Skegness Miners Holiday Camp, in my childhood with my family, Mam, Dad, brothers and
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