Work begins on South Tyneside memorial honouring heroes who made ultimate sacrifice
It will also incorporate the refurbished Boldon Colliery clock.
After five years of fundraising and campaigning, work has finally begun on a new memorial in Boldon Colliery - and it is scheduled to be ready for this year’s Remembrance Sunday.
The work is being carried out is to honour the village’s mining heritage, as well as the service and sacrifice of its servicemen and women.
The long-awaited project, led by the Boldon Colliery Heritage Group, is now becoming a reality thanks to grants from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund, alongside years of fundraising and generous support from the local community.
The granite work will feature two life-sized statues. One is to depict a colliery miner and the other a First World War soldier.
It will also incorporate the refurbished Boldon Colliery clock, which had previously stood on the old Co-op building since 1956, before later being housed at The Royal British Legion. The clock has recently been kept in storage at South Shields Town Hall.
Following approval of the planning application, groundworks began on the site on the morning of Monday, September 21, with work expected to take around six weeks.
To mark the breaking of ground, members of the Boldon Colliery Heritage Group committee, servicemen, former pitmen and members of the local community gathered at the memorial site to celebrate the start of what is a historic day for Boldon Colliery.
Organisers say that if work proceeds as planned, the memorial will be erected in time for the annual Service of Remembrance on November 8.
The piece will provide a permanent reminder of Boldon Colliery’s proud industrial and military heritage, while ensuring the stories and sacrifices of those who came before are remembered by future generations.
George Henderson, chairman of the Boldon Colliery Heritage Group, said he was delighted to finally see work get underway following years of hard work by the group and the wider community.
He said: “As chairman of the group, I am over the moon to finally see things moving. After five long years, we’ve had all kinds of ups and downs to cope with, but with the help of our committee, we are finally seeing things come together.”