Coal mining

Open Day and Working Party Weekend, 28th May 2016

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Elsecar Heritage Railway steam loco Birkenhead shuttling up and down the line, with Hemingfield village across the fields in the background.

Bank Holiday Weekend fun

The Friends of Hemingfield Colliery returned to the pit on Saturday at the start of a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend. The sun was shining and it was a great day to be outdoors.

Site Director Glen and Friends’ Chair Steve were on site early ready for work, trimming back the lush grass which has shot up over the past couple of weeks. They were joined by Peak volunteers John, Eric and Chris, with regular volunteer Chris arriving later in the morning.

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Open Day and Working Party, 20th February 2016

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Site Clearance and Teamwork

The Friends and volunteers arrived on site early on Saturday, hopeful of getting a few hours of work done before the impending doom of the forecast rainclouds. In the event, however,  the weather held out long enough to make significant progress and the friends were joined by some very welcome visitors with stories to share.

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Open Day and Working Party, 6th February 2016

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Falling Skies

The Friends and their doubty volunteers looked skywards this past weekend as the heavens opened and the water descended. There was every likelihood that the weather would indeed stop play. However, our volunteers are most definitely made of sterner stuff, and donning waterproofs and not a modicum of plucky determination, they set forth to Hemingfield, to get stuck in to another day of site clearance activity. Continue reading →

Open Day and Working Party, Saturday 23rd January 2016

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THE FIRST WORKING PARTY OF THE NEW YEAR!

A grey, but mild, Saturday morning saw Friends Chair Steve catch the attention of an inquisitive, passing dog walker, as he opened up the heavy steel gates to the Hemingfield Colliery site in readiness for another productive working day. Steve duly treated the gentleman and his four-legged friend to an impromptu tour of the site and an explanation of the archaeological and reclamation work underway.

The Friends of Hemingfield Colliery warmly welcome visitors and are always happy to showcase and explain their work to interested guests and to share their exciting plans and aspirations for the future of the site.

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Out-bye 2015: the last shift

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Nunnery Colliery 1897
Nunnery Colliery 1897
Hewers leaving work 1896
Hewers leaving work 1896
Trammer 1896
Trammer 1896

Year’s end

The year ended quietly at Hemingfield; with strangely mild temperatures but constant rain, bringing floods to the North. Our final open day in December was, unfortunately, rained off, but the Friends continued with their current research projects, and set to planning events and identifying new opportunities to pursue in the new year. Elsewhere bigger events dominated the news… Continue reading →

14th November 2015 – Village Ramblings

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Heavy clouds signaled the start of what would be a very wet weekend in Hemingfield, and an unsettled one for South Yorkshire. Site director Glen and regular volunteers Phil and Chris arrived to continue the site clearance work, but with only the odd break in the cloud for company, they decided to sound the retreat and stay dry. This gave us a chance to go and explore – and what could be better than a historical village ramble in Elsecar!

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Open Day and working party – Saturday 31st October 2015

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Autumn comes to Wath Road

After a week of miserably wet weather, Saturday arrived with bright sunshine and spookily unseasonal warmth, as Site Director Glen unlocked the pit gates ready for our last Open day in October.  Just after ten o’clock a keen group of volunteers arrived on site ready for what would be a busy day of clearing the west end of the colliery, an area hidden by silver birch trees which sprang up over the last 20 years as the pit site was neglected and became overgrown. We certainly like a challenge!

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Working Party Weekend 17th October 2015

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Autumn Archaeology

The weekend saw a smaller working party than usual convene at Hemingfield Colliery, as Site Director Glen met with volunteers Nigel and Chris on an overcast Saturday morning. The team itself was far from overcast, however, and a bright and jolly mood pervaded as the work began.

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