Life Dahn t'Pit

Life Dahn t'Pit, 'life down the pit', is the miners' memorial at Oakwell Hall Country Park, Birstall: a sculpture of two miners at work beneath a great overhang of coal, standing where Gomersal Colliery's men once boarded the coolie car. The Spen Valley Civic Society commissioned it and retired miners made the inscribed pavers round it; it was opened in August 2005.

The mining history in this record

Gomersal Colliery, a drift mine at Nutter Lane on the eastern edge of Gomersal, closed in the early 1970s. Kirklees Council then cleared the site, reshaped the spoil heaps, planted thousands of trees and laid out Oakwell Hall Country Park, and nothing was left to show there had been a pit; its buildings had stood where the park's car park and information kiosk are now.

In 2004 the Spen Valley Civic Society's president, Fred Knox, who had started in the mines as a Bevin Boy and worked at Gomersal until it closed, lamented that every trace of the colliery had gone. The society set out to commission a public sculpture on the site, an information board showing where the pit buildings and shaft had been, and a book of the miners' reminiscences. With a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, and help from the Countryside Agency and Kirklees Council, it commissioned the sculpture from Xceptional Designs.

People

Fred Knox, president of the Spen Valley Civic Society, former Bevin Boy and Gomersal miner. Xceptional Designs, the makers.

Legacy today

The sculpture shows two miners working underground. Retired Gomersal miners helped make the pavers round it, each carrying a message of their own, and at its opening in August 2005 former miners, their families and local people gathered for the occasion. The society published a booklet of recollections under the same title. The memorial stands near the park's play area; a second work, Adrian Moakes's steel 'Fiddlehead and Fernblades' of 2008, inspired by the ferns of the coal measures, stands on the park's Colliery Field.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The Spen Valley Civic Society commissioned the sculpture, with Heritage Lottery Fund money, to mark the site of Gomersal Colliery. (documented fact) ^1,2
• 'Life Dahn t'Pit' was commissioned from Xceptional Designs, as part of a heritage project with help from the Countryside Agency and Kirklees Council. (documented fact) ³
• The sculpture depicts two miners at work underground. (documented fact) ^3,4
• Retired miners helped make the pavers round the sculpture, each carrying a message of their own. (documented fact) ^1,2
• It was opened in August 2005 at a gathering of miners who had worked at the pit, their families and local people. (documented fact) ¹
• It stands where miners boarded the coolie car before their shifts, at the entrance to the old colliery. (documented fact) ³
• The project began in 2004, when the society's president Fred Knox, a former Bevin Boy who worked at Gomersal until it closed, lamented that no trace of the colliery was left. (later recollection) ¹

Mines

• Gomersal Colliery — West Yorkshire
  The sculpture stands on the site of Gomersal Colliery, now Oakwell Hall Country Park, at the place where its miners boarded the coolie car, and was made to mark the pit; retired Gomersal miners made the pavers round it.

Real-world mining concepts used here

Coal, Colliery, Drift, Shaft, Spoil Heap

Sources

1. (secondary) Miners Memorial — Spen Valley Civic Society
2. (secondary) Statues and Sculptures at Oakwell — Friends of Oakwell Hall & Country Park
3. (secondary) Unearthing the past: Mining heritage at Oakwell Hall and Bagshaw Museum — Kirklees Council
4. (observational) Life Dahn t'Pit (Geograph 157444) — Wikimedia Commons (Geograph)

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 5 October 2026