What a month! Mostly highs, with the odd low; new life on site, beautiful weather, a new monarch, and lots of activity from the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery, as we completed work on our National Lottery Heritage Fund project Hemingfield’s Hidden History. The project has reunited the colliery site – pumping station and pump house cottage, and enabled a transformation of our understanding of the history and importance of the surviving buildings. Working together with others, we have uncovered more of the stories of the communities around the pit, at Elsecar and Hemingfield, and connected with a new generation of young people on the heritage and biodiversity of the former colliery site today .

We still have a few surprises to share, related to the project as we draw it to a close, but also look forward to a better and brighter future for the whole Hemingfield Colliery site, its buildings, condition, protection and wider recognition.

The skills, opportunities and resources provided through working on the project mean the Friends can share a reunited colliery site, better understood, better documented, better interpreted and better protected than ever.

Working with partners at Elsecar Heritage Centre, Barnsley Museums, Hemingfield Ellis school, we have grown the volunteer base and increased the hours of care and attention contributed on site, every week, whilst more than doubling the public open days when our gates are wide open and welcoming all-comers to share in this remarkable scheduled site, recognised in the extended Elsecar Conservation Area.

Open hearts and minds

We began the month with an Open Day, continuing our commitment to open the site more regularly, and provide tours informed by new archival research and informed by local history and family stories gathered from local people.

Being able to use Pump House Cottage as a base makes welcoming visitors much more pleasant and sustainable for the group. It also offers a location – a fascinating grade II* listed building no less – in which we can mount displays and exhibitions, as well as providing welfare facilities – something the Friends lacked when first taking on the abandoned pumping station site in 2014.

New looks

One of the major benefits of the NLHF project has been our work on site interpretation and preparation of new display materials, including a new logo for the group. Working with professional graphic designer, Michael Burke, the Friends and volunteers provided feedback on which elements of the site were most prominent to the identity of the group. A number of designs were considered, but the new logo is shown below.

It brings together old and new: surviving buildings; a shaft alluding to the underground world for mining and pumping; the winding headgear, and a window arch uniting the whole. It presents a new clean image, within different black/white/green colourways, which we look forward to using as the group produces more interpretation materials, printed materials and digital outputs which will enabled it to provide a consistent identity for the group’s activity, both on line, via social media, and at in-person events.

Happy and Glorious

May 2023 had more than the usual number of Bank Holidays. May included an extra holiday – to acknowledge the Coronation of King Charles III. The coronation ceremony itself took place on Saturday 6th May 2023, marking a new era for the United Kingdom.

The Friends are an inclusive organisation, including monarchists and a range of those less fervent about celebrating the institution of monarchy. Saturday 6th was, therefore, a partial gathering on site, whilst others remained at home to watch the proceedings at Westminster Abbey.

Coronations past

Coronations are a moment for reflection and connection: reflecting on the passing of regnal periods, of reigning monarchs; connecting local communities with a national moment – a new chapter in the nation’s story. Just as in 2023 people’s attention turned to London and the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, so we see similar, if different, reflections from South Yorkshire, in days of yore.

In 1953, Wath celebrated the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth – with a programme of activities – the brochure for which emphasised the close connection of colliery, church and crown.

Looking further back, the memorabilia from coronations has a long history. In 1911, Hoyland’s Working Men’s Club and Institute produced coronation cups, with images of King George V and Queen Mary.

Going further back – to the last Queen-to-King transition, i.e. Queen Victoria to King Edward VI, in 1902, a local pit manager, from Wharncliffe Silkstone Colliery, penned some poetic lines which perhaps echo some people’s sentiments as Queen Elizabeth’s reign passed to King Charles III’s new era, in a world still troubled with conflict.

A Coronation Ode

When Winter with its icy hand,
And War's heartrending dull delays
Had cast a gloom upon our land,
And darken'd, sadden'd were the days;
There fell a heavier grief than all -
In fullest time, in age serene, 
In Duty's path came Death's last call
To England's Queen.
[...]

And now that Time's revolving wheel
Bids us once more rejoice and sing,
While tower and steeple loudly peal
Forth for the crowning of the King;
While banners flitter in the wind,
And loudly booms the hollow gun,
And all men hail with gladsome mind
Edward thy son,
[...]

And in the wider sphere which now
Gives larger scope for greater things,
O plant within the royal brow
The wisdom that befitteth kings.
O may he guide the ship of state
Amid the rocks of party strife,
And to his country dedicate
A noble life.

George Blake Walker (1845-1921)

Nature’s crowning glories

Meanwhile back on site, some of the Friends and regular volunteers had plenty to celebrate, as their work in and around Pump House Cottage continues to bear fruit – both figuratively and, perhaps, literally as the plants in Pump House Cottage garden come to life and create a beautiful space for visitors and regulars alike to enjoy.

With Buzzards flying overhead, blue tits nesting in gaps in the old sandstone walls, and passing visitors dropping by in the form of a beautiful pheasant, the site is alive with wildlife.

One unique habitat offered by the pit – the pumping shaft – provided a spectacular view of grey wagtails nesting. Diving through the grill-topped shaft to feed their young sat on a girder with the old rising main of the pumping equipment. The shaft-dwellers have brought underground life back to the colliery and appear to be return visitors; canny to the safety of the steel grill preventing predators from reaching their nest.

Squirreled away

At the end of May, another wildlife treat emerged, or rather the after-effects of it. A small cluster of sprouting oaks were noticed by the edge of the concrete by the pumping shaft. Removing them to prevent damage to the site, it was clear these were the fruits of a squirrel having buried their loot, only to forget and never return.

Damaged Goods

On to less happy aspects of the month – vandalism and criminal damage. Heritage crime remains a challenge, and brings unwanted costs. The new interpretation board by the canal basin, on the Trans Pennine Trail was one of a number hit by graffiti -which needed to be cleaned.

Back on the pit site – a sad incident of criminal damage occurred to a rear window of Pump House Cottage, as a brick was thrown through the window.

This has been boarded up and secured, and will require additional funds being raised to enable replacement as well as provide additional CCTV coverage . For a Grade II* listed site, this is a despicable and malicious act.

Tooled up

Thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund project, some contingency funds have also enabled us to invest in equipment which will further enhance our ability to restore and maintain Pump House Cottage and other buildings on site. With a summer of outdoor work open before us, the Friends have purchased a further scaffold tower set which will enable more volunteers to collaborate on repair and maintenance work in future.

Ending on a high

Despite the negatives, by the end of the month, the Friends were blessed with fabulous weather, and enjoying getting stuck in mowing, gardening, and starting some substantial repairs to the rear retaining wall, and other jobs planned for the better weather.

Our work continues, we thank all our friends, supporters, local partners and visitors for the support they offer, and look forward to sharing more in the very near future.