Mansfield Woodhouse residents question whether new mining memorial at Berry Hill is needed

Your Chad revealed how Mansfield Council, as corporate trustee of Berry Hill Park, was backing a proposal from the Nottinghamshire Mining Museum to erect a sculpture and a plaque in the park.

However, the news has not welcomed by Tina Hollis and her husband Simon, of Sherwood Rise, Mansfield Woodhouse.

They have been working to tidy up the mining memorial off Sherwood Rise after it got into, what they say was an unkempt state.

Tina said: “We have memorials throughout Nottinghamshire, where collieries once were, and to my knowledge, there wasn’t one at Berry Hill. There was no mining there that would keep the country working.

“The memorial in Woodhouse has been left, for different reasons, such as Covid and lack of funds, and it got into such a state.

“The money needed for a new memorial at Berry Hill, which they seem to want to turn into a designer park, could be better spent elsewhere. They shouldn’t spend other people’s money willy-nilly.”

Simon’s father Phillip had been a miner. Sadly, Phillip and his wife Gloria passed away last year.

The memorial at Sherwood Rise is a monument to the 96 miners who lost their lives while working at Sherwood Colliery.

In a blog post on its website, a Nottinghamshire Mining Museum writer said that miners paid money to get Berry Hill Park started, and many miners would also have paid with their lives, either being killed inthe pits, receiving life-changing injuries, or developing industrial diseases.

The article concluded: “Berry Hill owes its existence to the coalminers of Nottinghamshire. Nottinghamshire Mining Museum will continue to remember that debt and ensure that the sacrifices of Nottinghamshire coalminers are never forgotten.”

Nottinghamshire Mining Museum plans to hold a public consultation on the proposal and will be fundraising to deliver the project.

If it does get off the ground, it is hoped that the memorial would complement the council’s Destination Parks project, funded by £2.94 million of Towns Fund money.