ACTS OF GENEROSITY AND COMMUNITY SPIRIT – CONTINUED
THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE’S MINERS
We are continuing our series highlighting the acts of community generosity of Nottinghamshire’s miners, made possible through the Miners Welfare Fund, created following the Mining Industry Act of 1920.
Working class towns and villages in the early part of the 20th century, were impoverished, and mining communities especially so – yet coalminers and their representatives had the vision to see what was needed and financially supported many initiatives that benefitted and enriched the wider community.
EDUCATION is an important example of this generosity.
This article from the Nottingham Evening Post, dated 1st May 1926, shows that the Miners Welfare Fund had already donated £10,000 to the building of Mansfield Technical College and were receiving further requests for assistance with the provision of equipment.
Photo Nottingham Evening Post 1 May 1926. Copyright Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
This photograph shows the first site of the Mansfield Technical College on Chesterfield Road, Mansfield, which opened in 1928. The photograph is copyright the Old Mansfield Society.
Mansfield Technical College, opened 1928. Copyright Old Mansfield Society.
This photograph dated 1946 shows Form 2B at the Technical College. No further details are available and the photograph (copyright www.mansfieldandarea.org.uk) was provided by James Geoffrey Simpson to the website. Do you recognise anyone? Do you have any further details.
Form 2B Mansfield Technical College, 1946. Copyright www.mansfieldandarea.org.uk
A report in the Derby Telegraph, at the time, advises that students would study subjects including physics, geology and engineering in up-to-date laboratories.
Similar financial donations were made to the Worksop and Heanor Technical Colleges.
Generations of Nottinghamshire’s post 16 students have benefitted from these donations.
This photograph shows how such donations were potentially life changing for local young people. J B Leaman, a Clipstone man taking evening classes at Mansfield Technical College gained a scholarship that involved study at Nottingham University. This opened up the possibility of accessing further study to gain his manager’s certificate.
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Clipstone student wins scholarship. Nottingham Evening Post, 4 November 1932. Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
The amounts donated were very significant at that time, in the early 20th century, and their value in today’s calculations would be in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.