Sutton Manor Colliery
I have just spent a few days doing something totally different: watching over children at Sutton Manor Primary School (St Helens). The school received a lottery grant to study Sutton Manor Colliery, which closed down in the early 1990s, and to eventually produce a book and short film from their findings. Over two days, ex-miners and miners’ wives and family members came to the school to be interviewed by the children about their experiences – everything from the working conditions in the mine, to the strikes to their very busy social lives! They brought with them several objects that the children had to photograph such as original miners’ lamps, payslips and tallies and several brought photographs. My job was to teach the children how to photograph the objects using the school’s new cameras and how to scan and save images onto their computers. I’ve learnt a lot about a community that remains incredibly tightly-knit, as though their lives still revolve around the mine which is now nothing more than a field. It also made a refreshing change from life as a wedding photographer which has involved nothing more than sitting at my computer for the last couple of weeks! -AL
