The Irwell Valley Mining Project, which was founded in 2012, are bringing a stunning photographic exhibition to libraries in Salford throughout the festive season.
They will be holding open events at Gateway Libraries in the coming months, starting with Eccles on Monday 7 December running until Saturday 12 December.
The exhibition will feature photographs, artefacts and memorabilia from that time when the North West was a virtual powerhouse of the coal industry with pits at Agecroft, Wheatsheaf, New Town and Pendleton – itself the deepest in England where workings reached 3,600 feet into the earth.
The team have already put a memorial at the site of Agecroft Colliery and Clifton Hall and now plan to do a similar memorial to the Pendleton Pit which was located down Whit Lane.
The project started when a group of individuals with experience and an interest in mining, got together with the aims of raising awareness of the history of this once prevelant industry in Salford.
Paul Kelly, their Mining Chairperson, decided to write a record of his experiences as a miner at Agecroft and now gives talks to schools on the history and the uses of coal, which many of the children have never seen.
This promises to be a fascinating exibition and a timely reminder to young people of a once mighty industry which powered the Industrial Revolution of England.
The exhibition will will also be on show at Walkden and Swinton Gateways in the New Year.
Main image: Courtesy of Salford Star
