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We visit New Grimethorpe
with Brian Elliott
 ‘We’ve seen nowt like this since pit’s shut...’
Grimethorpe on a lovely early June day. It’s a place where, despite tremendous social and economic problems in the wake of the miners’ strike and pit closures, residents and supporters are rightly proud of what is now being achieved. And, as we shall see, it is not just structural regeneration and redevelopment that has put a smile on a place of well over 5,000 residents, about the same population size as existed in the days of when Coal was King and Carlton Main Colliery Company the main landowner. Over three or four generations coal was Grimethorpe, and vice versa. It provided work, wages, houses, amenities and culture, the very life and soul of the community. It is no surprise that when coal suddenly went a great vacuum could not be collier-like filled.
Let me confess, I like Grimethorpe and its people. Perhaps it is because I was brought up in a nearby coal mining community which experienced hard times but I also had family connections here too. When my father’s pit closed at Carlton in the mid 1960s he got a job as a fitter, working at the power station right next to the colliery. Many of you will remember the large complex next to the pit, including the coal preparation plant. I seem to recall Grimethorpe developing innovatory clean coal technology. What an asset it would be in today’s near critical energy situation. I went down the pit a couple of times during the 1970s, accompanied by some of my pupils from Royston Comp. The girls had to be content with a tour of the surface buildings but the lads had more direct underground experience. After only an hour or two some of them appeared at the surface so blackened that it looked as though they had worked a double shift at the coal face.
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 My cousin, George Eastwood, worked underground at ‘Grimey’. Sadly, he was one of the last persons killed there, in a machinery accident.
When I can I try and attend a short service outside of St Luke’s, by the new mining memorial which has a list of names of all the men killed at the pit, or died shortly after an accident. It takes place on the same day as a reunion of former miners in the Working Men’s Club. Unveiled in March 2003, the memorial is the culmination of a great deal of careful research and fund raising by local people, the kind of community spirit that continues in other projects.
For many of us Grimethorpe is synonymous with its world-renown brass brand. Founded in 1917 as a traditional colliery band (by members of the disbanded Cudworth Colliery Band), for many years it was comprised of miners from the colliery. I dare say, some miners were lured to a job at the pit on the basis of their musical talent, so they could play for the band. The ensemble’s reputation has been earned through a succession of competition and musical recording successes over many years. From 1932 to 1945 the band played in 42 competitions, always in the top five and winning on 19 occasions. In 1970 the band won the first of several victories in the prestigious National Brass Band Championships. The appointment of Elgar Howarth as its professional conductor and music adviser in 1972 heralded the beginning of the band’s national and international status. In 1976 the band played on the soundtrack of the Walt Disney film Escape from the Dark and produced a landmark recording: Grimethorpe Special, featuring Howarth’s Fireworks. In recent years its fame was of course greatly enhanced through one of the best British films ever made: Brassed Off (1996). Written by Mark Herman, part of the film was shot in the village and, like Ken Loache’s Kes, involved local people and local scenes. Filming also took place at Hatfield Colliery (Grimey’s headgear having been demolished after the 1993 pit closure), the National Mining Museum and Halifax’s Piece Hall. The colliery band’s future was uncertain following the announcement of the government’s pit closure programme in 1992 but has been kept going by major sponsors such as British Coal and Richard Budge (RJB Mining). There is an excellent web site: www.grimethorpeband.com.
Several of the Brassed Off cast have returned to the village in recent years. In 2000 Pete Postlethwaite who played the conductor Danny in the film opened the new MIllennium Green. The obelisk is an interesting feature containing some delightful panels under the theme of ‘Passing of Time’, celebrating local heritage, based on the work of children from Ladywood and Milefield junior schools. Although not in the film, the well known Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane recently called here on his B-Road Britain filmmaking travels.
Let’s not forget, however, the presence of the ‘alternative’ Grimethorpe and District Band which always responds to a variety of local community requests throughout the year.
My first port of call was at the Acorn Community Resource and Business Centre (51 High Street), which reminded me coming here when the National Coal Board functioned on this site. I got talking to its caretaker, Gary Mallinson. The Centre houses the community public library and provides a wide variety of activities and courses. There’s a good range of adult vocational courses, including IT as well as Learn Direct and Job Search facilities; other activities relate to health, sport and leisure. In fact in Grimethorpe as a whole there is no real excuse for any youngster not being able to find some kind of sport and leisure activity to try. Apart from the main sports there’s rugby, boxing, fishing, first aid, basketball and a skateboard park. A number of small to medium-size businesses are located here, including a convenient community cafe.
I found it interesting to know that Gary was one of the last miners to work at Grimethorpe Colliery. Born in the village, he had started work at the pit at the age of sixteen, as an apprentice electrician, after leaving Willowgarth school. It was clear that he liked his job at the Acorn Centre but also spoke with affection about his mining background and about old friends that he worked with. I think he still missed the camaraderie of the pit. We talked briefly about the strike and he told me that the former NUM Secretary, Ken Hancock, was still in the village, as landlord of the Red Rum public house.
 Towards lunchtime High Street was quite busy, with some activity relating to the renovation of older residential properties and scaffolding visible on a range of business premises towards the top of the street. I walked by St Luke’s parish church, a large brick structure dating from 1904 which I recall some years ago looked drab and was subjected to vandalism. In fact its very existence was in doubt. Thankfully, not so today. Grimethorpe’s medieval ecclesiastical associations are to be found not too far away, at Felkirk. Opposite St Luke’s, on the site of the old recreation ground which once enclosed a small park and bandstand, is the aptly named Allegro Court, new houses being erected by Haslam Homes. Two traditional community buildings are at the top of the street, near the Brierley Road/Cemetery Road junction: the Miners’ Welfare and Institute and the Working Men’s Club. The grass was being cut at the nearby sports ground, one of its fields used for rugby, an amateur rugby league team having been formed in 2006. Grimethorpe has a great sporting tradition and local clubs and facilities need to be maintained for present and future generations. I remember back in the early 1980s taking part in the inaugural Grimethorpe Six road race, over a demanding course, an event which attracted a large field of competitors and fun runners, held, I think, as part of the village gala. The Welfare once had a football team that played in the North Counties League and in the 1990s a local pub team, managed by ex-Barnsley and Newcastle United professional Stuart Barrowclough, reached the final of a knock-out competition, playing at Wembley.
New and renovated properties were evident along the start of Brierley Road. The houses fronting the old ‘Seaside’ estate really did look clean and smart. Further along, the road slopes down to a small stream where one of the last old village farms, Bridge Farm (more anciently Manor Farm) is sited. Douglas Shirt farmed here before the war. Opposite once stood an early place of entertainment, named as ‘Picture Theatre’ on a 1929 local map. Was this the better known Empire Palace listed in a mid 1930s directory? Probably so. The manager was Clifford Nicholson who may have also been linked with the Hemsworth Hippodrome Company. Other local farms at this time included Low and Colliery farms (Metcalf brothers), Brierley Lodge (George Richardson) and of course Grimethorpe Hall (Cyril Thompson). The latter is an exceptional building for our area, of considerable historic and architectural importance and has been registered ‘at risk’ by English Heritage. Its seventeenth century brick and ashlar stone always remind me of the much larger Temple Newsam, near Leeds, dating from a similar period. There have been several attempts to convert the building to modern usage over the last twenty years or so. The present notice says that it ‘will soon be developed as Stuarts Restaurant & Bar’ may be several years old. Walking along Brierley Road, it was nice to see so many well-kept front gardens.
 In the afternoon I called to see Father Peter Needham and the warm welcome included meeting his curate and Joseph and Mary, Peter’s friendly dogs. Apart from a short spell as a curate in London just before coming to Grimethorpe, Peter had for twenty-five years been a Franciscan Friar, working in some of the poorest parts of the UK and world. He wanted to swap ‘living out of a bag’ for that of a more settled role but it was only a fortuitous meeting with the Archdeacon of Pontefract that resulted in him coming to fill the vacancy at St Luke’s in 2002. Although he won’t admit it, his arrival really did start a chain of events leading to the present spiritual regeneration of the parish. His experience working in deprived areas was just what was needed. Whilst acknowledging the great importance of coal, ‘The church,’ he told me, ‘is reclaiming its place in the village in a way it wasn’t able to before.’ St Luke’s was badly vandalised, with boarded broken windows, ‘a big red brick box falling down’, a congregation down to ten and just £800 in the bank. But there was sufficient positive attitude, from people including Jeff Ennis MP, and regeneration officers, towards saving the building - and using it for the benefit of the community. On St Luke’s Day a candlelit procession which included the Grimethorpe and District Band, St John’s Ambulance and the majorettes walked down Brierley Road in the direction of the Bullet Club. A comment, ‘We’ve seen nowt like this since the pit shut’, was an encouraging start.
Key was ‘getting the congregation back’. St Luke’s Fund was established as a Trust (www. stlukesfund.com) in order to help breath new life into the community and create a new village hall. An ambitious target of £1.5 million may have seemed like ‘raising the Titanic with a straw’ but great strides have already been made. ‘A little miracle’, the new Calvary crucifix was erected, in remembrance of all the departed children of the parish. The broken church windows were repaired through insurance, the new miners’ memorial, already referred to, was unveiled and in 2005 sufficient funds had been raised to repair the outside of the church. The fund raising process included money needed for important design fees and Father Needham set off, barefoot, on a walk to York which attracted valuable media interest and £40,000. The fund is to enable the church to be a contributor to the community in terms of its welfare, providing grants to groups and individuals in need of help. Through Grimethorpe Enterprises Limited the Fund itself will receive surplus cash, and may one day be able to employ people. What a transformation.
Before leaving, Father Peter showed me inside the light and airy interior of St Luke’s. An altar, formed from the ancient base of the ladystone is a distinctive and pleasing feature in the Lady Chapel where two unique stained glass windows will soon be installed. Unique, because they will be the first made by an innovatory photographic process which leaves three dimensional images in the glass. Even more spectacular will be a great glass screen, extending from floor to ceiling, contained in an oak and bronze frame. It will be the work of sculptor Fenwick Lawson, a Durham miner’s son. As funding continues and work progresses it is expected that more and more people will come to Grimethorpe to see these unique modern features. I certainly will.
Before leaving Grimethorpe I called to see an old friend, 85-year-old Allan Armstrong who worked for almost half a century at the pit. Allan is a talented sculptor, noted for his coal figures as well as an artist. He is pretty good at gardening too, so it was lovely chatting with him about his mining experiences. I left Grimethorpe feeling even more optimistic than when I first arrived. It wasn’t just the fine weather and nice new buildings that made my day but the people that I had met. That’s what regeneration is really all about.
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