The Waiting Miner (7M) - 21 June 2016

Detail of 'The Waiting Miner' (1966) by H Phillips, bronze on concrete base.

I found this statue, now at the entrance to Betteshanger Country Park, very moving. When one recalls the decline of the mining industry, most think, I imagine, of Wales, the north of England and Scotland but there was an important coalfield with five collieries in Kent also. Betteshanger was one of the five.

The beautifully sculpted statue has a long and sometimes controversial history of being moved around Kent and I commend to you the following two articles amongst others:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-14354786

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteshanger_Country_Park

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