The Friends and regular volunteers returned to Hemingfield Colliery for another tentative and COVID-secure session maintaining the site as the country at large continues to open up following changes to government and Public Health England guidelines.
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After a week of, well let’s say ‘changeable’ weather, the Friends and regular core volunteers were keen to recoup some of the time lost to site maintenance since March and the beginning of the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this an extra Saturday when the weather looked set fair was seized on 11th July to continue the weeding, cleaning and tidying the site so that it is back in good order for what the future may bring as the world, or the UK at least, takes its first steps back towards a new normal.
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Back. Working behind closed gates, and observing social distancing and regular hand sanitising, the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery made a careful return to site.
In a pandemic world, hidden away from each other, we have time to look at history’s lessons – to research some local history on Hemingfield and its people, the history and geography of their health over time. Just as today we experience challenges to increased mortality and public health, so too our ancestors struggled as modern healthcare developed and new treatments became available. The following is a brief piece of research supporting our Hemingfield’s Hidden Histories project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.
At the end of the Nineteenth and beginning of the Twentieth Century, Hemingfield came under the local governance of Wombwell Urban District Council. The body oversaw most local services and reported on the health and welfare of the population, numbering an estimated 17,764 souls.
A hundred years ago today, on the 15th May 1920, the last corf load of coal was raised from Earl Fitzwilliam’s Hemingfield Colliery. It marked the end of an era for the pit, as silence fell, albeit temporarily, at the main winding shaft.
Continue readingCoronavirus is contracting space and dilating time, it seems. For their part, the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery continue their efforts, remotely: researching, planning and staying safe. We hope you and yours are safe and well. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to all those affected by this epidemic, all those lost to it, and all of those caring and keeping the rest of the country, if not the whole world, running as normal as possible.
But more anon: this blog has a little bit of catching up to do…
Given recent Government announcements and based on the advice of Public Health England on the extraordinary steps needed to achieve effective social distancing and shielding vulnerable groups, the Friends have decided it would be prudent to temporarily close the site to the general public and so cancel publically advertised open days for the immediate future.
This will be regularly reviewed in line with the latest guidance.
Unfortunately this will likely delay some project activities planned for the year as part of Hemingfield’s Hidden Histories project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. However all remote/online activities will continue, and even possibly expand, with social media posts, Twitter, Facebook and website updates.
Please continue to get in touch to learn more about the site, its history, surviving built heritage and future plans.
Stay safe everyone!
The Friends of Hemingfield Colliery
Fitting perfectly into a 10-3 break in the weekend’s wet and windy weather, the Friends managed to pack in a substantial day’s work on site.
Continue readingWhat with Storm Ciara (pronounced keera) threatening proceedings, and suggestions of Storm Dennis barely a week away, the Friends threw caution to the – admittedly light – wind on Saturday 8th February 2020, and ventured down to site for a surprisingly storm-free open day at Hemingfield Colliery.
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2020! The first Open Day in the new year and what a beautiful day. Bright blue skies above, clear views all around, and a quickening coldness which suggested frost, but was soon chased away by getting to work as the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery and the regular volunteers returned to the pit for another year of activity, in a new decade of life for the colliery.
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Friends of Hemingfield Colliery 