The exhibition at the Harley Gallery near Worksop lasts until 3rd January 2027. Entitled Coal Mining Stories, it includes art work by former miners like Brian Morley, whose booklet is also on display alongside some examples of his drawings. The one showing the underground railway that took miners from the foot of the shaft to the coal face reminded me of my only visit to a working pit, at Bentinck colliery in the 1980s. It seemed to go on for miles and remains the strangest railway journey I’ve ever taken. Two others that come close were the Post Office Railway, which is part of their London museum and which was a tad more claustrophobic, and the ghost train at Wilkie’s outdoor fairground in New Brighton during the 1950s, which probably wasn’t nearly as scary as our coal mine experience during a “fact finding” mission for geography teachers that primarily taught us how lucky we were to be in the classroom for a living, even though we may not have thought so at the time.
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