MINING heritage is being showcased in a Northumberland town thanks to a memorial garden.
Townsfolk gathered to mark the formal dedication of the £53,000 Blyth Miners’ Memorial Garden on Temple Avenue.
The sculpture of a miner and his pit pony was put in place three years ago, but it has never been officially designated as a memorial garden.
The oversight was put right yesterday by Coun Jeff Reid, the leader of Northumberland County Council, who handed over documents affirming the garden’s distinct status to Isobel Foster.
Isobel, committee member on the North Farm Tenants and Residents’ Association, spearheaded the campaign to raise the funds to transform the once disused patch of land into an area for local children to enjoy while also paying tribute to the town’s heritage.
The 74-year-old said: “This is the history of Blyth. The rows of houses down from the garden were built specially for miners, and they used to have walk through the area to get to the mine.”
Coming from a family of miners, Isobel and her fellow committee members were keen to keep Blyth’s mining heritage alive for youngsters.
“Some of the children didn’t know what a miner was and hadn’t even seen a lump of coal, so I got the local schools involved to teach them about mining,” added Isobel.
Sculptor Richard Broderick, of North Shields, North Tyneside, turned up to see the long-awaited formal dedication after investing months of hard work creating the statue.
He said: “I went into the history of mining and got lots of old photographs together before I started working on it. I even visited Beamish as they have a little mine and the original tack used.”
A new inscription was also unveiled next to the statue with a poem in Geordie dialect about the miners who would pass by on their way to Bates Colliery.
