25 years On – Andy Boag at Pontefract Museum
18 June – 27 August 2011
Pontefract Museum
Free entry
This is a touring exhibition on loan from the National Coal Mining Museum. Andy Boag, photographer, here describes the exhibition and what led him to embark on the project:
Pontefract Museum, Salter Row, Pontefract, WF8 1BA. 01977 722740
Opening times: Monday – Friday 10.00am – 4.30pm Saturday 10.30am – 4.30pm
‘The year 2009 is the 25th anniversary of the 1984-5 miners strike. The book consists of photographs and interviews of ex-miners on the sites of the former Yorkshire coalfields. Introductions by Tony Benn and Billy Bragg. Also includes a contribution from Arthur Scargill. 82 pages with over 30 black and white plates
2009 is the 25th anniversary of the 1984 – 85 miners’ strike. It began in March as a reaction to government plans for pit closures and involved around 180,000 men. The dispute started when the Conservative government announced the closure of Cortonwood Colliery.’
Tony Gillespie (pictured)
Kilnhurst Colliery – Closed 1988
I left school at fifteen, came straight down here on the
Friday for a job and started the following week. When
I first started there as about fifteen or sixteen hundred
men worked here. Eventually the colliery went down to
three or four hundred men.(photography by Andy Boag)
This project documents the sites of former collieries in Yorkshire which closed in the aftermath of the strike.
The men worked at the pits and are pictured at the location of the original pit yard.
The body of work is now available in book form – ’25 Years On’ online via www.blurb.com
To buy a copy of the book click here.
