Our speaker on 3rd August 2024 was Lynn Dunning, Chief executive
at the National Coal Mining Museum and her talk was centered around
this and “Our Mining Heritage – Past, Present and Future”.
After giving us a little of her background and career history in various
museums, Lynn started by showing us a painting from the art collection
and informed us that more works would be out on display by artists like
Tom McGuinness and Norman Cornish.
Lynn then went on to talk about coal mining; the pride, identity and
community spirit which is very present historically and environmentally.
She told us about the infrastructure surrounding mining and how this
developed and how many other things were dependent on coal. At one
time there were over 40 mines across our district, the coal board being
the biggest employer in the area. We were told about the scientists who
helped the coal mining industry and people like Henry Briggs who built
housing for the miners.
The Miners’ Memorial Garden celebrates the mining community. It was
opened in 2015 and contains a commissioned sculpture entitled Lives
Lived, Lives Lost. Lynn went on to talk about Caphouse Colliery itself and
told us a little of the history, it being owned by the Milnes family and then
the Kaye family. Unusually Emma Lister Kaye ran it herself at one time,
apparently her husband was hopeless! Under her leadership significant
plans were developed for the colliery. Like all other mines it was
eventually taken over by the National Coal Board. It occupies a 50 acre
site with numerous listed buildings and is the only place in England where
you can go 140 meters underground.
Lynn told us of the current exhibition based around the 1984-85 strike
and the poignant stories the museum had collected. We learned about
the extensive library at the museum and Lynn then went on to look to the
future and how the museum needed a plan in place to address Net zero
and how the green energy that was generated could be used.
We were encouraged to visit, Lynn giving us a taster of present summer
events and upcoming events later in the year, such as Santa
Underground and the Light Up Event. A picture of the sculpture in the
miners’ memorial garden follows on the next page. Coloured glass discs
are created to commemorate individual miners and these are inserted
within the sculpture which is positioned so that the sun shines through
the discs making a memorable display:
