Mike O'Brien

Mining Heritage Project revealed

The Piccadilly Mining Heritage 2006 group will proudly unveil their Miners Memorial Wall with a giant Miners Lamp at its centre on Saturday August 1^st.   The wall is built of bricks each of which has been bought by the families of miners who worked at nearby Dexter and Kingsbury Collieries.

Ian Thomas who helped start the scheme sees the opening as the result of two years hard work, “A small team of local people like my wife Jean, Royston and Jenny Rowles, John Curtis and Gerald Johnson, have done the organising, but we have had great support from the people of Piccadilly and the nearby villages. 

“We wanted the local miners to be remembered at the entrance to the village.  So we got each family to buy a brick.  And we got funding from Area Forum North Warwickshire Borough Council for the 13 foot miners lamp which sits on top.”

The miner’s lamp will light up and stay lit as an everlasting flame to commemorate those who have died and those who remember working down the mines.  The local mines were closed, Dexter in 1965 and Kingsbury colliery in on July 31 1968, but many miners live in local villages and will be present when the Bishop of Aston the Rt Rev Andrew Watson blesses it and the Mayor of North Warwickshire Cllr John Moore officially unveils the monument and lights the lamp on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Mike O’Brien MP backed the project from the start, helping to get sponsorship from companies, but he will be on holiday on Saturday and will miss the opening, so the The Piccadilly Mining Heritage Group organised an early viewing last Friday night. “I am sorry not to be there on Saturday,” said Mike. “I am away with my family for two weeks.   But I was absolutely delighted to see the monument.  It is a tremendous sight. 

“When Ian Thomas and Royston Rowles approached me two years ago on this we thought it would be a small memorial, but there has been so much support from local people that it is now a large and brilliant sight on the side of the road and a fitting tribute to the men, woman and children who went down the pit to keep the power stations supplied with coal and to keep the lights on. 

“The Mining Heritage group have done a great job and deserve the thanks of everyone in the area for delivering this wonderful project.”  

Local miners the late John Taylor and Gerald “Jeg” Johnson first raised the idea of a miner’s memorial in 1968. 

Jeg, now 75, said, ”I never thought I would see this in my life time but now I have my brick in the wall and I will be there to see the memorial unveiled on Saturday.  It has been mine and John’s dream and I am so grateful to the Mining Heritage group for making it come true.  I remember the people I worked with, many now passed on.  They worked so hard in difficult conditions.  They kept the home fires burning in the war and kept industry going in the decades after it.  They deserve to be remembered.”