Wednesday 30 November 2011

Book - New book explores life at local coal face

OUR district’s rich seam of mining history is the subject of a new book released on Saturday.

‘Coal Mines Remembered 2’ is Annesley Woodhouse mining expert Martin Weiss’s second book on the subject of mines and features scores of photos from local pits and plenty of first-hand accounts of work underground.

Mr Weiss, formerly Chad’s coal industry expert and who later worked for the Coal Board, said he had researched the new book for two years and gathered tales from local mine workers.

“We were world leaders in mining technology in this area, during the 70s and and 60s, and at one time visitors would fly in from all over the world to see how things were done.

“The book is mainly about local pits, but there are tales from further afield, too.”

Among the memories is an account of the explosion at Sutton Colliery in 1957, which killed five men and injured many more.

The booked is priced £12.99 and Martin is signing copies of it at Sutton Library on Saturday morning between 10am and midday.

Sutton Library manager Gail Renshaw said: “Martin’s books are always popular and entertaining and his coal mining titles fill a valuable gap in local publishing.”

There will be another signing at Kirkby’s Conservation Society shop in Kingsway on Tuesday morning, 13th December.

Mr Weiss would like anyone interested in contributing to a third book in the series to contact him on Mansfield 754844.

“I am keen to record as much as possible about local coal mining so if any readers have fresh tales to pass on I’d be delighted to listen as another mining book is a distinct possibility.”

No comments:

Post a Comment