Funding secured to celebrate the important role of the Miners’ Welfare
National Coal Mining Museum for England and partners secure funding to celebrate the important role of the Miners’ Welfare
National Coal Mining Museum for England, in partnership with CISWO, The Coal Mining Charity, Spectrum People, and Creative Minds, has been awarded £98,561 for an important two-year project. The project is funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Collections and Communities Fund, run by the Museums Association and will celebrate the pivotal and ongoing role of miners’ welfares in coalfield communities.
Supported by the Creative Health Hub at the University of Huddersfield the project will bring together heritage, community, health, and academic organisations with a programme of activities that will support people experiencing marginalisation, mental and physical ill-health. Through the project people will explore and celebrate the legacy of miners’ welfares as vital spaces for gathering, learning, and recreation.
A steering group of people with lived experience, including former coal mining industry workers and those living with mental and physical ill-health, will guide the project, which will investigate the history of miners’ welfares and from this develop innovative ways to improve wellbeing through creative activities connected to museum collections, collections in community hands, and coal mining heritage.
The project will be piloted in Wakefield, with activities expanding regionally and nationally. It aims to once again bring community spaces to life and build a compelling case for future investment in heritage-based creative health.
Through creative workshops, storytelling sessions, co-curated displays, and community gardening projects, people will engage with heritage in new ways that create a sense of pride in their local area and improve health and wellbeing outcomes in former mining communities.
Miners’ welfares were central to life in Britain’s coalfields throughout the 20th century. From halls and reading rooms to sports fields and allotments, they offered opportunities for relaxation, celebration, and social connection.
Today, as many of these spaces approach their centenaries and face challenges of underuse and underinvestment, this project marks a pivotal moment to recover, reinterpret, and reimagine their legacies. These spaces, along with the collections that document their rich heritage, remain an important part of coal mining history and places to promote wellbeing, inclusion, and community resilience.
Lynn Dunning, CEO National Coal Mining Museum, said: “Miners’ welfares were the beating heart of coalfield communities, places where people came together to support one another, learn, celebrate, and relax. Their legacy is not just historical, they are a brilliant example of the power of community and care. We’re proud to be working with CISWO, Spectrum People, Creative Minds, and the University of Huddersfield on this important project, which will honour the legacy of miners’ welfare as well as coal mining and reimagine these spaces as hubs of wellbeing and creativity for future generations.”
Image: Families outside Derbyshire Miners Welfare Centre in Skegness, August 1968 (© NCMME)