The first reunion was help in September 1989, in the Museum’s first home at Barton Meade, Haydon. On that occasions some 120 form mine employees gathered to share their memories of working in the Somerset pits over tea and cake. The success of that first event quickly saw it become an annual affair, with miners gathering at Haydon on the first Monday every September.
In 1999, when the Museum relocated to the old Market Hall, the annual reunion relocated. And, thanks to the sponsorship of Radstock Co-operative Society, other local businesses, and the Somerset Miners’ Welfare Trust, it evolved to include a ploughman’s lunch, as well as tea and cake, which was prepared and served by volunteers from the Museum.
The 2013 reunion included representatives from each of our local secondary schools, as we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the closure of the pits. Over the 4th anniversary year they worked with former miners to capture their memories of the last days of the closure of the pits through a special project, “Mining the Past”, lead by Julie Dexter at the Museum.
Ten years later, in 2023, the 50th anniversary of the closure of Somerset’s last pit was marked with the first reunion to be held away from the Museum. It was hosted by the Somerset Miners’ Welfare Trust at the Old Down Inn at Emborough.