Miners' Statue will bear names of those who died
Miners who died in the four Kent collieries will have their
names recorded on the base of the Waiting Miner statue when it is
moved from Dover seafront to the entrance to the Fowlmead Country
Park in Betteshanger.
The statue was commissioned in the early 1960s by the Central
Electricity Generation Board and was originally sited at
Richborough Power Station.
When the power station closed, the statue was donated to the
district council and was moved to Dover seafront, next to what had
been the National Coal Board offices.
There has been a campaign to move the statue to a more
appropriate and relevant location, and it was agreed the new site
should be next to the Miner’s Way at Fowlmead Park on the A258 Deal
to Sandwich road.
Made of bronze, the miner is on a concrete base to simulate a
slab of coal.
In its new location, it will be slightly higher ground to the
north west of the Fowlmead roundabout, some 1.4 metres above road
level.
To prevent it being damaged, the statue will be covered with
“smart water” and the base will be raised on a natural stone-clad
concrete plinth which will have four faces, each carved with an
emblem from the four former pits, Betteshanger, Tilmanstone,
Snowdown and Chislet, alongside the names of those miners who died
in the search for coal.
Wednesday, June 24 2009