Announcement Date: April 25, 2026
This year’s AGM was held at Gisburn once again. Members arrived at 11 am and spent time chatting and looking over the piles of books and magazines that were on sale at VERY nominal prices. This was followed by a buffet lunch and the business part of the meeting, which included two motions, both passed unanimously. One was to make some changes to the constitution to reflect current needs, and the other was to award Honorary Membership to Sallie Bassham.
Following this, two members gave presentations:
David Kitching with the backstory of how he came to write his recently published book, a 10-year labour of love, “The Brick and Tile Industries of the Staffordshire Potteries”. His photographs of the smoke-belching brickworks beside the deep clay pits that feed them, set in amongst the houses, were surreal.
Graham Topping asked the question, “What do you think of when people mention ‘mining memorials’?” A monument in a churchyard or a plaque at the site of an old mine to remember miners who died in a disaster? Graham showed us that “mining memorials” come in many shapes and forms, from physical to virtual and, more recently, not only to pay tribute to those who died in disasters but to celebrate the lives of miners, their families and their communities. Essentially, anything that provides a record of past mining activities, miners or mining communities is a “memorial” to mining. A tangible reminder to current generations of what they owe to past generations. Very interesting and at times quite sobering.
