As many of you know Killamarsh Heritage Society have appointed a small group of interested people who are working very hard on a project to put a monument on Green Lane to mark the spot where Westthorpe Colliery was for many years, and we are progressing with this.
We are very disappointed to be told that negative messages have been put on the Voice Facebook site by two Killamarsh people to the effect of ‘Why bother ….no one recognises Killamarsh as a mining village’. We would have thought that both of these people would have supported our project.
Also, the question was asked in the same Facebook conversation – ‘”Why not High Moor?”
We would, therefore, like to put the record straight:
A large part of the history and heritage of Killamarsh is as a mining village, and to many people it will always be thought of as a mining village.
The pits in Killamarsh were the life blood of the village for many, many years and hundreds of men earned their living from working in them. Men also lost their lives working in the Killamarsh pits. The pits were important to the community and to the social lives of those in the village. Many of us had grandfathers, fathers, husbands, brothers and sons working in the Killamarsh pits.
To brush this aside with ‘Why bother….no one recognises Killamarsh as a mining village’ is absolutely disgraceful, especially from those who made the comments.
The fact that the pits are no longer there is exactly why we need the monument, to record our heritage and history.
The two people who have made the comments obviously totally miss the point we are trying to make.
In answer to the question “Why not High Moor”?
We have chosen Westthorpe Colliery in 2014 because the pit closed in 1984 – which is 30 years ago this year.
We therefore feel that this year is an appropriate year to erect a monument to Westthorpe Colliery.
Our intention is to look to putting a monument to High Moor Colliery in the future.
We know that many people who follow our website, both in Killamarsh, in other parts of the country and overseas will relate to us being a mining village and had members of their family working in the pits. We always receive an enormous amount of interest in the photographs and information about the pits we had in Killamarsh. We would, therefore, be pleased to receive your comments and views on the issue (either supportive or otherwise) on our Memory Bank please.
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