Opinion: 'Sadly the fact Berry Hill Park is the miners’ park has been forgotten'

We are preserving the past, for the future.

Sadly the fact Berry Hill Park is the miners’ park has been forgotten.

It was set up by CISWO, the coal mining charity, “‘for the benefit of the inhabitants” and in particular, but not exclusively, such of the said inhabitants are members of the mining community.

Miners paid for Berry Hill park, through deductions from their wages and through a total of £25,000 donated through the miners union.

In today’s money, is several hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The facilities created by that money were world class.

John Whetton, a miner’s son, and Nottinghamshire’s Olympic runner in the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games, trained at Berry Hill Park.

Local schools held their sports days in the park.

Berry Hill Park was the park where miners gathered from across Nottinghamshire for the Annual Gala; celebrating their industry and communities.

And remembering the cost in lost lives and comforting each other through a service of remembrance.

MP Tony Benn and TUC general secretary Len Murray were speakers at the gala.

Tracey Seymour (Babbington) was the reigning Coal Queen.

Berry Hill Park’s importance to Nottinghamshire’s coalminers was made very clear in 1981, when 33 brass bands and 15 junior jazz bands, from across the county, including Sherwood, Rufford and Mansfield

Collieries, gathered for the Centenary Mining Gala.

The memorial will be a Nottinghamshire Mining memorial to allow us to remember more than 3,300 miners who have lost their lives in Nottinghamshire coalmines in the 250 years coal has been mined in the county.

Our memorial will be the site of an Annual Mining Remembrance Service and will provide visitors and local schools with information on Nottinghamshire’s coalmining heritage.

Local schools will be involved in the design of the memorial.

We will receive no funding from the council for the memorial.

We will have to fund raise and we will make a case and invite people who support our project to contribute.

Our fundraising page will be launched shortly.