PMSA National Recording Project - South Yorkshire

Doncaster Metropolitan Borough

We are carrying out research on the pieces on these pages.
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ArtistMaker: IBBESON; Graham
TitleOfWork: 'Miners' Memorial'
DescriptionOfPhoto: detail: showing trapped miner
DateOfCreation: 1987
Dimensions: 225cm high x 410cm wide x 240cm deep
Medium: bronze and limestone
Location: outside the public library. (SK510986)
AtoZReference: p.58 3D
Postcode: DN12 3NN
Street: Old Road
TownOrVillage: Conisbrough
AreaInTown: Conanby
MetropolitanBorough: Doncaster
Photographer: Dave Ball
ImageCopyright: Sheffield Hallam University
AccessionNumber: 89~1518
Description: A composite piece. Three large limestone boulders are joined by a dark pebbled concrete infill. Out of this struggles a bronze miner, part-buried by coal and timbers. Only his head, right arm and left hand, clutching a pick, are visible. On the right hand boulder stands a woman, hands on hips, with a shawl over her head. She stares out from the work, waiting and apparantly unaware of the struggle of the man behind her. This figure is sited so that she faces the site of the former Cadeby Main pit.

Dimensions: woman bronze 160ch high x 70cm wide x 35cm deep
miner bronze 80cm high x 125cm wide x 70cm deep
whole memorial bronze, 3 limestone boulders, concrete 225cm high x 410cm wide x 240cm deep

Commission: Conisbrough Library was opened at about the same time as Denaby Main and Cadeby Main Collieries closed. Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, with the assistance of Public Arts and the Yorkshire Arts Association. Graham Ibbeson was chosewn from a shortlist of four artists who had submitted maquettes for the commission. The artist comes from a coal-mining family and had himself worked in Grimesthorpe Colliery.

Inscription: A plaque is attached to the smallest central boulder:
"A TRIBUTE TO THE MEN AND BOYS / WHO LOST THEIR LIVES AT / THE DENABY AND CADEBY MAIN COLLIERIES FROM 1869 / AND TO THE WOMEN WHO SHARED THEIR LIVES / AND SUFFERED THEIR LOSS.
SCULPTOR: GRAHAM IBBESON, M.A. (R.C.A.) / COMMISSIONED BY / THE DONCASTER METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL / WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF PUBLIC ARTS AND / THE YORKSHIRE ARTS ASSOCIATION 1987"

Comment: There was some initial criticism of the piece by those for whom the depiction of the the struggling miner has been too painful a reminder of the lives lost or damaged.






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Last updated September 12, 2006