Wednesday Walk to the Coal Miner's Memorial

For my #wednesdaywalk I visited the Coal Miner's Memorial in Duckmanton, (UK) which when finished will display 106, 6ft figures that represent coal miners walking to and from the pit. The number of figures corresponds with the lives that have been lost in the 3 accidents at Markham Colliery, Duckmanton in 1937, 1938 and 1973.

The memorial, was designed by sculptor Stephen Broadbent. Some of the figures are silver and some black. The black ones represent the miners who came out of the pit dirty from coal dust and then walking home from their shift.

Each figure has a bronze tag with the name, age and the job of one of the victims.

My dad worked at the pit when the most recent accident took place in 1973. The brake on the cage taking miners to the bottom of the pit broke and the cage plummeted 1,400 feet to the bottom of the mine shaft. Thankfully, he wasn't in the cage that day but it had a profound affect on him. He left the pit to work elsewhere, returning a year later. Sadly, 18 miners died and another 12 were seriously injured.

The worst accident happened in 1938. A massive explosion occurred killing 79 miners and injuring 40 others. A year earlier another explosion had killed 9 workers. Sadly, the coal mine is no longer there.

Thank you for stopping by.

#wednesdaywalk is initiated by @tattoodjay.

Photos by @ellenripley - Julie Smitham. All rights reserved.