Walter Bell recalls his time with the Pitmen Painters

Oct 11 2010 by Joanne Butcher, The Journal

THEIR story has been made into a Broadway smash hit. And now, one of the last surviving Pitmen Painters has told of his time as miner-turned-artist.

Walter Bell was part of the world-famous Ashington Group and his work is included in the collection at Woodhorn Museum.

Now 86, Walter was one of the youngest members when he entered the art classes in the late 50s.

“We used to meet every week in a little wooden hut,” remembered Walter, of Stakeford, Northumberland. “I was one of the youngest, most of the others had been there since the start.

“When I left the mines I lost touch with them, but as far as I know most of them have now passed. I feel like the last of the Mohicans.”

Walter was born in Ashington where his father and brothers Adam and Robert all worked down the pit. Robert was tragically killed in a roof fall when he was just 28, and Adam died in his 60s from mining-related illness.

Walter had also worked in the mines, but got a job with the National Coal Bard in a pneumoconiosis research group, studying the effects of dust on miners in collieries across the region.

It was then he was introduced to the Pitmen Painters, by founder member Edwin Harrison.