The Somerset Miners Welfare Trust continued its schools initiative yesterday as Chairman Bryn Hawkins and Treasurer Mo Duery visited five more primary schools to deliver free three-foot metal miner silhouettes.
The latest round of deliveries took the miners to schools in Timsbury, High Littleton, Farrington, Fosseway and Westfield. Each school will display their miner on the school grounds, giving pupils a daily reminder that the villages where they live and learn were once at the heart of a thriving coal mining community.
The schools programme is part of a wider effort by the trust to bring the story of Somerset’s coal mining heritage to a younger generation. Letters were sent to thirty-three local schools offering a free three-foot metal miner for display, and fifteen schools responded. The first batch of deliveries saw Bryn, Mo and fellow trustee Selwyn Rees present miners to St Benedict’s in Westfield, Trinity in Radstock, St Mary’s in Writhlington, Welton Primary in Midsomer Norton, Norton Hill Juniors and St John’s in Chilcompton.
With yesterday’s five deliveries, the trust is well on the way to completing the programme for all fifteen schools that accepted the offer.
The smaller three-foot silhouettes are a natural extension of the trust’s metal miners project, which has seen over forty seven-foot miners installed at locations across North Somerset and Bristol over the past two years. From town centres and railway stations to recreation grounds and pub walls, the metal miners have become one of the most recognisable heritage features in the region. Bringing a smaller version into schools ensures that the next generation grows up understanding the industrial history on their doorstep.
If your school received a miner and would like to share photographs of it on display, the trust would love to see them. Visit our contribute page to get in touch.
