The men and women who inspired our project

Our project was inspired by the deaths of a number of men and women whose memories of their mining communities were being lost for ever.

First amongst these was Frank Ellis from Hucknall, a stalwart of the Notts Area of the National Union of Mineworkers, who fought and was imprisoned in the Spanish Civil War.  Later in the 2nd World War, Frank rose through the ranks to become a 1st Lieutenant and fought in the battle of Arnhem.

We have also very recently lost Ida Hackett, one of the leaders of the Nottinghamshire Women’s Support Group.

We were also inspired by the memories of men and women who are still living.  We have worked to record these memories before they are lost.

What our project sets out to do

Two years’ ago we set out to save the memories of the men and women of six Nottinghamshire pit communities by:

• recording 40 interviews (video and audio)
• creating a photographic archive
• exploring the role of women within mining communities
• saving the interviews onto CDs and DVDs and publishing short excerpts on a site set up for the project
• sharing these memories with schools and the local communities through a series of roadshows held in schools, libraries and community centres

How much have we completed?

We have:

• completed all 40 interviews
• begun to edit the interviews so that all interviewees can be given their own copy of their interview
• set up this website
• started to download excerpts from our interviews and photographic archive onto this site
• visited Ollerton, Mansfield, Newstead and Hucknall with Mining Memories Roadshows

What we have left to do

• to visit Blidworth / Rainworth with our Roadshows
• finish editing the remaining interviews
• continue to update this site with new information and video from the interviews
• produce a leaflet about the resources available for all schools, libraries and community centres