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Coal - WeAreOCA

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

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Coal

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We have featured the work of photography tutor Moira Lovell on WeAreOCA before, but it seemed appropriate to re-post it. Thirty years ago today the 1984/5 miners strike started, when it was announced that Cortonwood colliery was to close. Three months later the confrontation between police and miners at Orgreave in the outskirts of Sheffield would lead to iconic images such as this one by Don McPhee in the Guardian and would be re-created by artist Jeremy Deller in The Battle of Orgreave. The strike led to a flourishing of creative writing and poetry in particular.
The OCA’s relationship with coal is less fraught but nonetheless fascinating. When Michael Young established the college in 1987 he looked to patrons for support. His vision of widening access to arts education attracted a number of donors, one of which was the Elmhirst family, Yorkshire landowners who had earlier founded Dartington Hall. The Elmhirsts’ wealth, partly derived from revenues from coal mining on their estate, supported the OCA through the provision of premises from 1989 to 2000. Unfortunately, these premises were in the form of a Tudor farm building and a routine visit by the South Yorkshire Fire Brigade soon made it obvious that a move was necessary – large stocks of paper course materials in a timber framed building with wattle and daub walls didn’t make for the safest working environment.
It was at this point that European funding to regenerate the coalfields came to the aid of the college. Equipped with a grant, part of the surface offices of the former Redbrook colliery we refurbished and dedicated space for offices, warehousing and assessment created. From my office window I can see the equipment monitoring the main mine shaft and it is fascinating to speculate on how my role at the College is different to that of the mine manager who previously occupied my office.


Posted by author: Genevieve Sioka

4 thoughts on “Coal

  • Interesting to see this work again, I was reminded of by one or two of the images of Frans Hals “Regents Of The Old Men’s Alms Houses” especially “Yorkshire Main (1985) 2011. I was reading about Anne Scargill just recently, still living in Barnsley I think.

  • I saw this work work at Format 13 and was thoroughly taken back by the poignancy of it especially so because I live in the heart of the Dearne Valley coal mining area. Even though I was only 14 at the time of the strike there are memories that will stay with me forever.
    I completely understand what Moira is trying to say in the pictures and even the little irony in the title and the way the miners are shown in “different light”
    Its interesting living in the village I live in speaking to ex-miners that have lived in the same houses for 50 years or more. The stories they tell of a bonded community which was dismantled bit by bit during the closure of the mines.
    However its still apparent today listening to the old chaps and the way they converse with one another that there is still great respect for the skills and work that they did in the mines all those years ago.
    I now work all over the UK with people from all parts of the world and whenever people ask where I’m from inevitably the conversation comes around to the Miners strike, and its true to say it’s a very emotive subject that even 30 years on there is still differing opinion as to whether the strike was justified and what effect we are still seeing today.

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