Woodhorn Museum
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The annual Miners’ Memorial Service for Northumberland uses the Ashington Miners’ Memorial at Woodhorn as a focus for commemorations, with attendees paying their respects and laying wreaths at the foot of the plinth in memory of relatives, friends and workmates. Originally the memorial commemorated the Woodhorn Colliery disaster of 1916 but it has come to symbolise much more to the communities of the area.
The Ashington Miners’ Memorial adorned with wreaths on Picnic day, after the memorial service. Credit Richard Kenworthy for Museums Northumberland.
The Ashington Miners’ Memorial was commissioned and paid for by mining unions and the Ashington Coal Company. It was erected in 1923 and located on Sixth Avenue, Hirst Park, Ashington. It was designed by William Henry Knowles (1857-1943), a renowned Newcastle Architect, and sculpted by John Reid (born c. 1890), Master of Sculpture at Armstrong College, Newcastle. It was moved and re-erected in 1991 at Woodhorn Colliery Museum.
Ashington Miners’ Memorial in its original location on Sixth Avenue, ASHMM 1991/50, copyright Woodhorn Charitable Trust.
The instinct to commemorate mining disasters and the tragic loss of life associated with these terrible events is not new. The tradition of memorial glasses attests to this phenomenon, but the erection of a large, accomplished sculpture however, is more unusual.
Memorial glass jug, inscribed ‘Woodhorn Colliery Disaster Aug 13 1916 13 lives lost’, ASHMM 1991/49, copyright Woodhorn Charitable Trust.
The grade II listed memorial is in the style of a World War One war memorial but, unusually, it is dedicated to a civilian accident. It features a bronze figure of a mining deputy holding a safety lamp in an outstretched hand. The figure stands on a white granite plinth and pedestal with low relief bronze panels and two drinking fountains.
The dedication inscription reads ‘ERECTED BY/ THE MINERS AND/DEPUTIES TRADE-/UNION BRANCHES IN THE ASHINGTON GROUP/OF COLLIERIES (ASSISSTED/BY DONATIONS FROM THE/ASHINGTON AND CO. LTD., THE NORTHUMBERLAND/MINERS ASSOCCIATION, THE NORTHUMBERLAND/DEPUTIES ASSOCCIATIONS AND FRIENDS)/IN MEMORY OF THEIR FELLOW WORKMEN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE WOODHORN COLLIERY EXPLOSION ON SUNDAY, AUG. 13 1916.’
The memorial was unveiled in a ceremony on 18th August 1923 by Scottish born Labour M.P. Robert Smillie.
