Death of a PitLorraine Mchugh

Lorraine Mchugh

Death of a Pit

I am glad that, after over twenty years, the Pit and the Industry and workforce are being brought to the surface. Salford must never forget the Mining Industry.

The miner’s niece who documented the Death of a Pit

My earliest recollection as a child was there being some sort of accident at Agecroft Pit. It was in the fifties, the 1958 disaster, I was six, and my memory is of all the people in our street going to the pit gate.

My uncle Ken – Ken Chandler - was a Bevan Boy and worked down the pit all his life. He lived up the brew in the pit houses with his family. When I heard that Agecroft had closed he helped me get permission to go on site and document the breaking up of the pit. It was a cold damp day and the miners there were just breaking it up. I thought `This is a death’. So atmospheric and sad.

Hence I called my photos Death of a Pit. I just sketched and took photographs. The drawings were a representation of my emotions on those few days, not a photographic representation. I had the slides and photographs for that. I wanted to make a statement this is a death and was eventually a death of an Industry. It is part of Salford’s working class heritage and I am proud of my relations who worked down Agecroft Pit.

I had an idea to put Death of a Pit in the House of Commons. Alan Davies, who was then the curator of the Salford Mining Museum, suggested to include one drawing from my exhibition Death of a Pit and he would add others from the archives of the local pits by Lowry, Sutherand, Riley and even some miners’ paintings of the pits.

With the help of the late Joan Lestor, after two years and two attempts, we got the Lancashire Mining Exhibition in the Upper Gallery of the House of Commons. It was 1994. My `Miner Alone’ stood there and I thought `Yes! I have brought you here and it’s my way of honouring all the miners who risked their lives - my family members included - and placing this drawing in the place where bad decisions were made about the Industry’. I am glad that, after over twenty years, the Pit and the Industry and workforce are being brought to the surface. Salford must never forget the Mining Industry.

I will never forget my Uncle Ken, whose life in the pit brought home to me the courage of a miner. The photographs titled Death of A Pit are dedicated to him, Ken Chandler.

Lorraine Mchugh

Death of a Pit by Lorraine Mchugh