Alfred's Memorial Giant Pickaxe

If you're going to pay tribute to a mining community, then an absolutely massive pickaxe sculpture would be the perfect piece. Tucked away on a grassy patch off Springwell Road in Jarrow, it's not something you see every day.

From the ground level you can easily make out what it is, but obviously it's best viewed from the air. So we took our the Fabulous North Microlight to take some photos of this huge metal beast, a tribute to the miners whose grafted the mines in this region.

The name Alfred's Memorial comes from the old Alfred Pit, part of the Jarrow Colliery that opened way back in the early 1800s. Life down there was brutal. Tight tunnels, heavy tools and dangerous work that claimed far too many lives. In 1845, an explosion in the pit took around forty men and boys. They were buried at St Paul's Church in Jarrow and would have been a huge shock to the whole town.

A chap called Simon Temple opened this colliery back in 1803 and decided to name it after King Alfred. Whether he was a massive royalist or just really into burnt cakes, we'll never know. But what we do know is that on 26th September 1803, Temple threw a mahoosive party to celebrate.

Thousands of people rocked up to watch the first coals being loaded onto a ship called the Fox. The Alfred Pit was sunk to a stonking 175 fathoms below ground to reach the Bensham seam. That's roughly 320 metres or about the height of the Shard if you flipped it upside down and shoved it underground. The miners worked two main seams down there, the Low Main and the Bensham, both of them accessed by one single shaft that did double duty as the way down and the way up.

The miners worked with naked flames for light which was probably the main reason for the number of explosions and deaths. Six major explosions were recorded totally around 138 deaths. After the sixth explosion, the pit was closed in 1851 after just 48 years in operation.

The pickaxe shape is a perfect tribute as before all the fancy machinery came along, every single ton of coal was won by hand with tools just like this.

The giant pickaxe was first placed outside the old Tunnel Club on North Street, right near where the Jarrow Colliery once stood. The sculpture is marked with 2008 so we assume that is when it originally placed.

When the club was demolished in 2015 to make way for new housing, the memorial had to be taken down and tucked safely into storage. After a bit of a wait, it finally found its new home off Springwell Road in early 2023, where it's now back on display.

If you have a wander down to the head of the pickaxe you can read the inscription which says:

This park has been created in memory of all miners who working the pits of Jarrow.

Our Fabulous North friend Craig Dodds got in touch to let us know both his grandads worked down the pit and has one of the original lamps and helmets worn!