The Somerset Miners Welfare Trust has officially handed over the Norton Hill Colliery Metal Miner to the Directors of the Impact & Willowbrook Management Company (The Residents Association) located outside of Mardons Social Club.
The Metal Miner is one of around 150 which aims to leave the lasting legacy for those who worked on the Somerset coalfields. Metal figures of miners have been installed around North Somerset to mark the county’s mining heritage. They were designed, manufactured and installed by locals Dave and Kate Speed.
The Impact & Willowbrook Estate is built over some of the seams of the Norton Hill Colliery with the Pit Heads (there were 2) being where Sun Chemicals is now located – hence why the road to Sun Chemicals is called Old Pit Lane.
Norton Hill Colliery Memorial
The Directors have been working for many months with the Somerset Miners Welfare Trust and GM Engineering, as well as other companies – Charltons Timber, Norton Nurseries, Hollow Marsh Christmas Trees, Baynton Williams Removals, J&C Construction, Mardons Social Club – to create a wonderful memorial site for Norton Hill Colliery including a Miner, a Coal Truck with Norton Hill Colliery written on it and railway sleeper raised flower beds, on the grass outside of Mardons Social Club.
Many of these people donated materials and/or their time for free or at a reduced cost to this memorial and we are very grateful to them for this. The flower beds and Coal truck have been filled with flowers (many especially chosen for their pollinator properties).
The earliest mention of Norton Hill Old Pit is in 1839, the shafts being sunk in 1846. Norton Hill Colliery connected to the Somerset & Dorset main trainline just outside Midsomer Norton South station. Reliant on exploiting thin seams of coal and reportedly uneconomical, the colliery closed in 1966 along with the railway that served it.
In its heyday, over 600 people worked at the colliery. Through the 1930s Norton Hill was the largest producer of coal in Somerset with an annual output of over 125,000 tons.
On April 9th it is the anniversary of the terrible Norton Hill mining disaster in which ten miners, including a boy aged just 14, were killed in an explosion in 1908.
According to the mining archives, many more might have been killed, as at the time there were about 380 men and boys employed at the colliery of whom 30 were underground at the time of the explosion.
There were also five horses killed in the explosion which was at the bottom of the Slyving Vein Incline.
During the years of the Norton Hill Colliery at least 20 people are known to have died working there.
This is a very special memorial to remember the Norton Hill Colliery and those that worked there. The green area is the closest open space to the colliery and also has a large number of people passing it daily either on foot, bicycle or car.
Living Christmas Tree
The Directors have also planted a 7ft Blue Spruce Living Christmas Tree – thanks to Hollow Marsh Christmas Trees, Farrington – as a community tree to help build the community spirit and are planning to hold events at Christmas, such as carols on the green and also hoping to work with a local charity to enable memory baubles to be hung on the tree.
They will be planning these events along with support from Mardons. There has been a stake placed on the tree and a small picket fence around it to help protect it from wind damage until it is more established. Although it may not grow much this year as it settles itself into its new home, over the next few years we should see 1 – 2 feet of growth each year.
It will be decorated at Christmas. For those who have not seen it yet, the tree is located on the grass opposite the Teddy Bear Nursery.
The Directors are currently planning a series of community events for all age groups and look forward to these being well supported.
The Somerset Miners Welfare Trust were delighted to have installed a metal miner outside Mardons Club.
I am very pleased we have installed 2 for the Norton Hill Colliers as l worked for the one that closed in 1966.
We watched the Mardons Factory being built which l believe was the largest roof span in Europe at the time.
I was involved in moving the electric winding engine from Norton Hill to Writhlington Colliery during the holiday shut down in 1966.
Many happy and some not quite so happy memories at the pit, there cannot be many of us left who worked at the colliery.