 |
Home
Mining & The Forest of Dean
Project attracts international interest
Training for CD project
Visit to Old Ham Mine
Miners Memorial Unveiled at New Fancy
Freeminers of the Forest
|
|
|
|
Miners Memorial Unveiled at New Fancy
Location: Gloucestershire
The Miners Memorial was unveiled at the former New Fancy mine on Sunday 11th September 2005
Miners Memorial unveiled at New Fancy on Sunday September 11th 2005
The Roll of Honour sculpture was commissioned by the Forest of Dean Local History Society as part of a wider project to honour those who worked, suffered and were killed in iron and coalmines and quarries of the Forest of Dean. It has been constructed by Graham Tyler and John Wakefield whose work is well known in the Forest and who in the Committee’s view best captured the feeling of respect and compassion.
The piece consists of three elements, stone, iron and coal and stands around 11ft high. The coal element is be represented by carved and blackened Dean oak, the iron by fabricated steel, which has been pre-rusted, and the stone by Forest of Dean bedrock. Each element has a number of stainless steel discs set into the inside faces as an abstraction of the “Checks or Tokens” normally carried by miners in more recent times to determine who was below ground in the event of accidents.
Many Forest of Dean local businesses have given their time freely to help in the construction of this sculpture and they deserve a special vote of thanks. In particular Geoff and Mark Cecil for loaning their yard in Blakeney for the construction of such a large piece of sculpture, Bob Pember of Richards Crane Hire for organising the removal and lifting into place of the sculpture, Mike Schiller of Forest Enterprise for organising the ground work at New Fancy and Rob Guest also of Forest Enterprise for finding a suitable piece of oak for the sculpture.
Forest of Dean Local History Society would also like to thank the following Parish and Town councils who sent donations which enabled us to purchase the stone element of the memorial: Aylburton parish council, Bromsberrow parish council, Cinderford Town Council, Coleford Town Council, Lydney Town Council, Ruardean parish council, Westbury-on-Severn parish council.
By far the largest vote of thanks must go to Graham Tyler and John Wakefield who constructed such an evocative sculpture. The time and effort, which they have, both put in over the last months is way above any cost of the project. Their work is a true indication of the strength of feeling regarding the mining and quarrying background of the Forest of Dean.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
