Photographer records working life in a surviving coal mine

THE photographs may appear to belong to another age but working coal miners can still be found in West Yorkshire.

A new exhibition at the National Coal Mining Museum focuses on life at Hayroyds, a drift mine near Clayton West, near Huddersfield, which is owned and run by the miners who work there.

Twelve full-time miners work the modest seams and the pit is currently recruiting a surface worker.

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It used to be family-run but was bought by a consortium of working miners in 2004 and has been producing about 18,000 tonnes a year ever since.

Chief executive of the limited liability partnership, Joseph Flack, who led the consortium and whose great great grandfather opened the mine in 1908, has welcomed the exhibition on life at Hayroyds.

The photos have been taken by renowned social documentary photographer Ian Beesley, from Bradford.

Mr Flack said many people who drove past the pit site may not even realise its existence because it was hidden by trees and hills.

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Despite the modest output and small workforce, he says the pit has reserves to keep it going for “10 to 15 years at least” and it would continue supplying Drax power station at Selby, which takes the vast majority of the coal mined at Hayroyds.

He has welcomed the exhibition, although he has seen only a handful of the images. Photographs, he believes, can only give an limited impression of the working life of a miner, they do not convey the whole story and miners themselves may find them unrepresentative of their working lives.

“It is dirty work but I have grown up with it and people who get into mining like it (the work). It is a much more interesting job, it has more variety than working on a production line.

“Every day is different; a pit is a living, breathing thing, not like a factory. It throws up challenges and for me, as an engineer, even on a small scale, it is satisfying.”

Mr Flack, 39, said that mining was in his blood.

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Ian Beesley, who has been taking photos at Hayroyds since 1990, continued to visit the pit over the years, taking pictures above and below ground.

He said: “I decided to try and capture the atmosphere of working underground, photographing the darkness, the claustrophobia, and the physicality of the work.

“It has been one of the longest and hardest projects I have ever undertaken, but I was inspired and driven on by the tenacity, determination and humour of the miners who, in the most difficult of times, have continued to fight to win the coal.”

Entitled The Drift, the exhibition opened yesterday at the mining museum, near Wakefield.

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The photos are accompanied by poetry by the writer Ian McMillan, the Bard of Barnsley. A museum spokesman said: “The Drift leads visitors through a narrative that reveals the processes of mining today – and the sheer physicality of the work.

“A series of stunning images also captures the intriguing relationship between the cramped underground world inhabited by the miners and the spaces immediately above them on the surface – documenting Ian Beesley’s exploration of this dramatic contrast between light and dark.

“Ian Beesley first attempted to photograph underground working when he visited Hayroyds Mine in 1990 and continued to visit the mine over the years – mainly photographing above ground.

“In November 2007 it was announced that the pit was to close and he was invited to record the pit in what was to be its last few weeks.

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“However, a sudden and steep rise in coal prices led to the pit continuing production, albeit beset by problems that continue to today – labour shortages, ageing machinery, geological faults and, for the miners, a back-breaking, hour-long walk to the coal face.”

Punctuating the images of the mine and the miners, Ian McMillan’s poetry is printed and punched onto banners, doors and even a length of conveyor belt brought up from the pit.

The poems include The Back, Bent and Song of the Miner, which begins: “You could but be walking, But I’m underneath you, You could be talking, I’m listening, I’m listening...”

The exhibition is open to visitors until May 8.

A one-day symposium, A Representation of Time, is taking place at the museum on Friday, March 11, which will explore photography and literature.

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A book which accompanies The Drift will also be launched on the day.

Out of the darkness

Mines fascinate photographers, says Ian Beesley – the harsh environment appeals to them, but their images have become cliches.

“I would argue that photographing on the surface is about the light and the space, whereas photographing underground is about the darkness and the lack of space.

“I have become interested in the contrast between the light and the dark, the surface and the underground. These are the themes I have tried to explore in The Drift.”

Flash photography underground gives a false impression, he says.

“The atmosphere of working underground has been obliterated in the single flash of electronic light.”