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Snibston is appealing for memorabilia to contribute to its miners’ gala event in September.
The gala, a traditional-style celebration of mining life, will feature some of the attractions that made a miners’ gala the highlight of the mining community’s year, including a horticultural competition and a display of memorabilia.
The free event is part of the Heritage Lottery funded Mines of Memory project. This 12-month long project has been capturing the oral histories of former employees of Snibston and Whitwick collieries, including miners and office workers.
Snibston staff are now on the hunt for photographs of past galas, parades and gala queens, as there are few of these in the archives.
Members of the public with any such memorabilia are being urged to get in touch as soon as possible, so curators can make copies and include them in the displays.
The family fun day will be at Leicestershire County Council’s Snibston on Saturday, 20th September. As well as the other attractions it will also have a range of displays by local groups, tours of the colliery and its railway and a special performance by the world-famous Desford Colliery Band.
Ernie White, Cabinet member for Community Services, said: “This event is a chance for us to thank everybody who has been involved in the project so far, and to celebrate Snibston’s mining heritage.
“We want to recreate the fun and excitement of a traditional miners’ gala and we’ve been working hard to get a great range of family activities and entertainment organised for the day. We hope that this pilot event will become an annual fixture and in future years grow to be as big as the galas at Coleorton Hall.”
Old pictures of past Miners’ Galas can be sent to: Alison Clague by emailing aclague@leics.gov.uk or calling 01530 278444.
Background information
When George Stephenson and Partners opened a coal mine in north-west Leicestershire in 1833 they named it after the nearby hamlet of Snibston. Together with the adjacent Whitwick Colliery it gradually brought into being a new town called Coalville. The two collieries continued in use for over 150 years, exploiting deeper and more distant seams under and around the town.
The Leicestershire Coalfield reached maturity towards the end of the 19th century. During the 1930s it led the way in mechanisation and continued to be a strong industry until the 1980s. In 1982 there were six coal pits operating in North West Leicestershire, employing 25% of the workforce and in some communities as much as 40-50% of the male workforce. By 1990 all the pits had been closed.
Snibston Colliery closed in 1986, but the site was acquired by Leicestershire County Council as the focal point for the Snibston Discovery Park. Since then several of the colliery buildings have been designated Scheduled Ancient Monuments, and a nationally-important collection of coal mining artefacts has been gathered together as part of the County’s Museum collections. The colliery buildings can be viewed by visitors who join one of the frequent and popular guided tours, led by former coal miners.
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