The Peoples Lamp

In the North of England many places feel it is important to commemorate their mining heritage and have memorials.

The People's Lamp is to honour the Bowburn Colliery and the wider Durham coalfields. It is a large-scale miner's lamp created by Andrew McKeown, who also known for Seaham's Jewels of the Sea and The Beacon at Lawe Top in South Shields.

Dyer Engineering I guess fabricated it out of galvanised steel and installed it in 2022

Mining memorials are a place for people to come in reverence and recognise the impact of the hard graft, with a brief history lesson. They can convey a level of comfort from faith or spiritual beliefs, especially as many memorials are blessed. It generally ties in with community spirit and economic input.

You can see on the lamp the jobs the lads had such as bank man, pick sharpener, rope lad, and flat lad.

The pit lasted 61 years from 1906 to 1967.

It was commissioned by Cassop-cum-Quarrington Parish Council and Groundwork North East.

There is thoughtful seating with a couple of names of the seams worked.

There is an awesome photograph captured by Photographer Ashley Corr who gave this enlightening description of the capture.

A Bolt from the Blue

'I remember it well. I visited the lamp the day before, to see it for the first time. I thought it would look great lit up, so I planned to go back at night. Storms were predicted, but I decided to pop over regardless. There was thunder and lightning strikes on my lightning app, as I drove down the A1, from Houghton. The hits were in the Darlington area and they were heading north! I set up my camera and the lightning started again. I saw 3 or 4 bolts during 5 minutes. I only took about 5 shots, then the heavens opened. I ran back to my car, getting drenched on the way. When I got home I couldn't believe my luck. I'd caught one of the lightning bolts in those 5 shots!! My first ever attempt at photographing lightning!!

And that was that... '

My thanks go to Ashley for permitting me to show his capture and his other work can be found at Ashley Corr Photography.

Whilst in the area why not pop along and admire the war memorial and coal tub.