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 readingnature
June – a right royal month
June 2022 was another busy month of weekend activities on site at Hemingfield Colliery, although the first weekend presented a unique pause – the Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend from Thursday 2nd June 2022.
Continue readingGarden days and birdsong
How lucky we are to be out in the countryside! The post-industrial semi-rural greenery abounding around Hemingfield and Elsecar.
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.
Continue reading2022 starts here
Well, it wasn’t perhaps the most auspicious weather to kickstart a new year of work on site: Saturday 15th January 2022 saw cold foggy skies and icy ground conditions. And yet, there’s a lot to write about: where there is a will…
Continue readingSmoke-free reflections
“It was a beautiful autumn morning. Such days come seldom at this season of the year in Yorkshire. When they do come one enjoys them all the more.”
Mexborough & Swinton Times, 3rd November 1906, p.11
And so it was on Saturday 13th November 2021, 115 years later; another beautiful autumn morning. The Friends and volunteers arrived early for another productive day’s activities at Hemingfield Colliery.
Continue readingUncovering the Past
A short update from a busy weekend on site with visits and volunteers coming and going throughout the day. Sunshine casts more light than heat now, as autumn sheds the trees’ summer coat, and we all begin to wrap up ever more. Plenty of work in hand, at Pump House Cottage and around the site supporting our National Lottery Heritage Fund Hemingfield’s Hidden Heritage project. Thanks to National Lottery players for saving and sustaining our heritage.
Bank Holiday Balm, Saturday 28th August 2021
Coming as something of a blessed relief, the sun finally made an appearance on the last Saturday in August, as the Friends, volunteers and a select band of visitors foregathered at Hemingfield Colliery.
In the near distance the sounds of late harvesting echoed across the valley: the constant hum of a combine reaping, threshing, and winnowing the golden fields. A propitious start to the day.
Continue readingAugust company, Saturday 7th August 2021
Summertime. The Friends and volunteers returned to site for a brief spell as life continues to return to something akin to a norm. Hybridisation is the spice of life; we will grow and adapt.
In the event the sun shone early doors, enough to burn outside although patches of light drizzle were an omen of developments after 3pm.
Continue readingPathways to the past, Saturday 26th June 2021
After a short hiatus, the Friends and volunteers gathered for another socially-distanced outdoor working session on site.
Although decisions around lifting national lockdown restrictions in England were held back for four weeks until 19th July 2021, and there were worrying signs of Covid-19 infections rising with the new ‘Delta variant’, still the protection of an effective vaccination programme and gave the crew confidence in working outdoors, in a small group, albeit behind closed gates for a further push on restoration activities.
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Friends of Hemingfield Colliery 