Somerset Coalfield Life at Radstock Museum is delighted to have received the generous donation of £1,000 from the Somerset District Miners’ Welfare Trust (SDMWT).
The museum was presented with the cheque by Francis Hillier, a former Somerset mining employee and Chair of the SDMWT. Mr Hillier said the decision made by him and the trustees to make the donation, was unanimous after they had read about the improvements planned for the museum in The Journal recently.Chair of the Museum, Dr Nick Hall, explained that the donation will be used to remodel the museum’s coal-mine attraction; the plan is for the mine to be extended and made more realistic and informative.
One of the ideas is to have a mannequin of an ‘air door boy’, sitting by the doorway into the mine – boys as young as five- years-old worked in the mines in early Victorian times, opening and closing doors to ventilate them; this created a draft to keep the air flowing through the tunnels and prevent the build-up of poisonous gasses and also to let the pit ponies towing the coal trucks through on their way to the pit bottom.
The museum plans to use several mannequins within the museum as part of the improvements. If anyone knows of any mannequins of children or adults which could be donated or sold (subject to price) to the museum, please contact Museum Development Coordinator, Miranda Litchfield, by emailing:
[email protected] or telephone: 01761 437722.
The Trustees, Curator, Development Officer and volunteers of the Museum would like to thank the Somerset District Miners Welfare Trust for this wonderful donation.