Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 22 March 2021

DO YOU recognise anybody in the featured photo? They are a group of miners who all worked at Desford Colliery, and a local mining history group are trying to put names to faces for a proposed exhibition, if information is found on them.

The mining heritage group, named Coal Mining in Leicestershire, fronted by Leicestershire resident Susan Woodward, are aiming ‘to keep coal alive’.

They are seeking help from Hinckley residents with the research, as Hinckley and Bosworth was covered by the Bagworth, Desford, and Nailstone collieries.

Susan Woodward explained that she believes it would be great for each individual to be identified as it would help her with the group’s local history walk and research.

She said: “It would be great to identify everyone in the photo because we can hold an exhibition on this, other mining information, and the ‘coal app’ walk.”

The aforementioned ‘coal app’ is an application made for mobiles, named ‘Landscape Legacies of Coal’, and it features information about each coal route, allowing users to ‘connect and engage’ with local and historic coal mining sites.

Susan started the group off as a Facebook-based community coal mining nostalgia group three years ago, which has proven to be ‘very successful’.

It was founded in hopes to educate the young people of Leicestershire about the past collieries in the area.

Speaking on the founding on the group, Susan added: “I wanted to start something where we could hold exhibitions and displays at local venues in Leicestershire to teach the young [people] about mining, and how important it was to Leicestershire.”

“We want to reach out to all of Leicestershire to get the Coal Mining Heritage back”, she further added.

If you recognise anybody in the photograph and have any new leads regarding the research, you can contact the Coal Mining in Leicestershire project on their official website, linked here.