The next meeting of Bishop Auckland Civic Society will take place on Monday, 25th March in Bishop Auckland Town Hall at 7.30pm when Glynn Wales will address the Society in a talk entitled, The Durham Miner, Illustrated.
The perspective of the talk is historical and thematic, rather than chronological, and it is illustrated with images of mining art from the Gemini Collection, donated by Robert McManners and Gillian Wales, to the town’s Mining Art Gallery in 2017.
The several aspects of (largely 20th century) coal mining in County Durham to be explored are The Miner Through Time; The Miner At Work And At Risk Below; The Miner At Work Above; The Miner At Home and The Miner At Leisure.
Although not a central feature, the decline of mining will be alluded to and this could provide background to the forthcoming exhibition at the Mining Art Gallery, The Last Cage Down, which opens on Friday, 3rd May.
Although Glynn has no first-hand experience of underground mining, he was raised in a mining village, schooled in Durham City and spent most of his life as a secondary school History teacher at Ferryhill, which boasted two coal mines, just closed, as he set out on his career.
The school was heated with Durham coal but one of his last acts as headteacher was to sign an order for the purchase of £2,000 of coal from….Colombia!
On marrying Gillian in 1972, he came to live in Bishop Auckland where she was the Librarian, and their home is decorated with the work of local mining artist, Tom MacGuinness. Both have great hopes in the Auckland Project as an agency for reviving what is essentially a mining town.
The talk is free to Civic Society members while visitors are just £2, pay on the door.
Ferryhill & Chilton's local community newspaper.
