The miner is a stark statue, I find, and because of that emotive and thought-provoking. I am a fan of it, and whatever happens now I am glad it's been in such a prominent place and we've had that opportunity to know of it and see it. (Incidentally, Simon's dad was a miner, before he became a chef, and died very young. Every time we pass the statue, Simon reminisces.)
Paul, thanks for the info in your post, which was really interesting. We have a casualty on the War Memorial (Edward Gatehouse) who was a son of someone living at the Colliery down by the cliff (ad a distant relation of mine by marriage, we've discovered, too) When Edward died, his poor father had to row from the disused colliery to the town to fetch a coffin, and then take his son in his coffin back to the town for burial the same way.
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For Andy S ... thank you!
The Walter Tull event was wonderful, and I'm still on a high about it. I'll be writing it up on the DWMP website, but here, right now, is a good place to thank Crabble Corn Mill and all the lovely people there, who couldn't have done more for us and all our young artisits - everyone was brilliant.
While I'm thanking, I'd like to thank Derek Leach also, Chairman of River Parish Council, who really went that extra mile (literally too!) to make the day special for the young folk, and our Mayor, Bob Markham, who spent a long time with us, made everyone feel so welcome and special - and joined in with such good humour when he was shown how to hold an artist's brush! and Vic and Lesley - thank you for the chat, the coffees, and the cakes!
Please say hi to your mum, Andy, for us. I felt very priviledge to have had such a chat with her, and to have been able to learn more about that special community I grew up in. I learnt such a lot!
