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 readingVolunteers
Dry 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 readingOpening up
Late March ran rapidly into into April as the Friends held their first full Open Day of the year in 2025: Easter Sunday. It was a lovely day, with perhaps the best of the Sunny weather over the long bank holiday weekend. But the volunteers had been kept busy in the weeks building up to the open day itself as you will see.
Once again we owe a huge thanks to South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation in supporting our activities on site, without them this year we would not have been able to hold an Open Day.
Continue readingAll creatures…
Regular volunteers Paul, Janet & Jeff and Andy were on site on Saturday 15th March 2025. Thanks to support from South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation we can open the gates and operate on site with volunteers and members of the public.
Spring time tidying was very much the order of the day, clearing the garden flower beds and paths of Pump House Cottage. So much for the flora. As for the fauna, scarcely a minute had passed on site before a kestrel was spotted high up on the main headgear.
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 readingJune
Unfriendly weather, but not entirely dull. No sign of summer sun. June was the summer-free month, uninterrupted by good weather. Volunteers were on site sporadically throughout, on the 1st, 8th, 22nd and 29th June. Inbetween them came rain and cloud. Frequently. Unreasonably unseasonal weather kept us away, and yet it proved to be a very memorable month as you will read.
Continue readingCelebrating 10 years – remembering the first steps
In this special Anniversary post, Chair of the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery, Steve Grudgings shares the first selection of reflections on a decade of challenges, progress and change at Hemingfield.
December highs and lows
Continue readingDead Chillness reigns. And yet my heart would say –
Thomas Lister, ‘Winter Scene [In the wooded valley below Dearne Spring]’,
“Winter! I love thee well.” Though birds forlorn
Send no glad anthem from the snowy spray,
Yet gushing melodies are hither borne
From infant Dearne. Drear in the early morn
Ye seem, wild Alpine woods! – that guard this child
Of moorland springs, – ye summer-green, all torn;
Yet, Winter gives a garment undefiled
Of snowflakes light. Joy now the day-beam brings,
And sun-tipp’d gems light up the frozen wild…
from The Yorkshire Magazine, Vol.I, no.IV, January 1872, p.121
No-vember
November, the awkward month; no longer light, no proper time of day. The harbinger of winter gloom and colder comforts, but with festive frolics to follow. And yet, through it all, the volunteers’ job is never done. The Friends of Hemingfield Colliery are friends for all seasons!
Continue reading