Common Hawkweed is just one of the many beautiful wild flowers thriving on the Hemingfield Colliery site this June
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Open Day and Working Party June 11th 2016
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Hemingfield Colliery
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Open Day and Working Party Weekend, 28th May 2016
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.
Open Day and Working Party, 20th February 2016
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.
Open Day and Working Party, 6th February 2016
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
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.
Out-bye 2015: the last shift
Nunnery Colliery 1897
Hewers leaving work 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
28th November 2015 – Open Day and Working Party
With the festive season fast approaching, it was guaranteed to be a suitably wintry end to November, and so it proved to be as Site Director Glen opened the gates to another open day and volunteer working party at Hemingfield Colliery.
Joined by regular volunteers John, Chris and Phil, the team picked up where the last active working party left off – by continuing the logging of the felled trees, and generally tidying the site.
Thanks to a recent grant from South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation, the Friends and volunteers are now well-equipped with the tools to tackle these tasks.
Hemingfield Colliery – Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership
http://discoverdearne.org.uk/sites/hemingfield-colliery/
We’re featured amongst the sites working with the Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership on their excellent new website.
Read about their plans for the area over the next few years, and keep up with the amazing range of events and activities they are arranging and supporting to reconnect people with their local environment, built heritage and green spaces.
Open Day and working party – Saturday 31st October 2015
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!
Working Party Weekend 17th October 2015
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.
Friends of Hemingfield Colliery 