As of August, the summer of 2026 has been a punishing stretch of hot dry weather. Little rain. Ground parched. Yellowed grass and wilting plants. A rapid recap of how we got here and the Friends’ progress on and off site may not be amiss…
Continue readingPartners
Busy busy bees – Summer 2025
This post follows the Friends and volunteers on their activities, and new adventures from July through to September 2025.
It has been a busy time, with our regular volunteers attending and assisting a wide range of events and joining with others to support and celebrate our local heritage.
Continue readingDry spots in June
Warm weather continued into June, as nature’s pollinators revelled in their constant gardening on site.
Ostensibly a quietish month as we plan for the Autumn open days and await permissions for restoration work on our scheduled monument site and the listed Pump House Cottage.
Again, we are exceptionally grateful to South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation for their support this year which has helped us with site insurance to open for visits and prepare displays and activities with our volunteers.
And that said – plenty to report, both good and bad as you will see!
Continue reading2024 into 2025. Autumn Fantasia and the long winter.
2025 is here. There’s no denying. But the weather outside has been less-than-delightful, so we’re starting off by looking back – A more detailed catch-up from Autumn of 2024, with late touches of Winter frost which somewhat delayed the start of 2025.
But first, a great big thank you!
To all our volunteers, visitors, supporters and friends. Without your support the Friends would not be able to keep doing their great work in maintaining and sharing the colliery site and its stories with the wider public.
Continue readingSummery stamina, July and August 2024
Our regular volunteers definitely made the best of a bad summer, visiting site on the 13th, 20th, and 27th July, and 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 31st August.
We also had some special visitors on Friday 5th July, and Weds 21st August but more of that anon…
Continue readingLeaping into February
February turned out to be the warmest on record, but also rather wet. To put it mildly. It also saw some snow, so it was not the most prospicious for making progress on site and yet the regular volunteers did their characteristic best in what turned out to be a short but busy month.
Continue readingArtful endeavours at Ellis Primary
As part of the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery’s National Lottery Heritage Fund project Hemingfield’s Hidden History, the group organised a creative heritage activity at the Ellis primary school in Hemingfield village.
Making Hay and a King in May
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 .
2022 wrap up – was the year a success?
This blog covers highlights from this year, ranging from achievements on site, community engagement and covering some of the goals we may like to achieve in 2023.
Continue readingHope and Heritage spring eternal, April 2022
Cold comforts…
Picking up from our previous update at the end of March, you might be forgiven for thinking that the seasons had jumped, with winter returning, as snow fell on site on the morning of 31st March; the pit briefly donning a white cloak, before warmer air, and the green shoots of Spring began to emerge more fully.
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