Power to Malby miners and the community

I ATTENDED the opening of an art exhibition at the Doncaster Art Gallery and Museum. It is called ‘What’s left?’ and is about how vibrant mining villages were 30 years ago and what they are like today. (It runs until January 4 2015) These artists have expl

The exhibition made a big impression on me and I thought about little else all weekend. Plus, having written a book on Maltby when it was a very close mining community it makes me so sad to see what Maggie Thatcher and her Tory lap dogs have turned it into. I was also a parish councillor between 2008 and 2010 and recall when on council business having a walk round the newer housing estates in Maltby and reflecting about everybody now has a six feet high fence all round their own personal property, it’s as though they are saying “Inside this fence is mine, whatever happens outside this fence has nothing to do with me”. I can understand where they are coming from, there is now no such thing as police! But the bottom line is the community spirit has gone along with the police.

So as my weekend of thought was drawing to a close, I then realised that there is a golden ray of sunshine coming across the old pit tip. It’s called Maltby Miners Memorial Community Group and thinking about this group of Maltby people I realised that this community are starting to fight back. The community group has been started to raise money to build a monument to all the men and boys who lost their lives working at the colliery.

But it is turning into a lot more than that! All of a sudden Maltby has found its heart again, I can see a thriving community emerging from the dead coal dust. Their chairman is Bill Spilsbury, Maltby bred and born not just from mining stock, he has served in the Navy for 34 years. He is a leader of people. He and his committee have certainly awoke this town. They have got a calendar out for 2015 to raise funds for the monument and as I write this they have sold 2,000 copies and it’s only the second week of November!

I have watched them on two TV programmes, read about them in the national press and they are all over Facebook and a local network called Maltby Past Present and Future. They are now attracting many members, this is the heart of Maltby that I have been on about. This group are gaining strength all the time. This will not finish with the building of a monument to the men. That is only the beginning! These people will see what they are capable of doing, and the building of our community will continue. The monument will just be the spur. It will be just dandy for all those lives lost to say, “Look what we have started!”

More power to MMMCG.

DJ Brennan, Ryton Close, Maltby