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LOCATION 1
Chatterley Whitfield Colliery // Stoke-on-Trent
Meet you face to coal face. Only sounds here are the birds. And our voices. And the brickwork’s blank verse.
Groundkeepers was created in response to an Artists’ Tour of the disused Chatterley Whitfield Colliery site, near to Stoke-on-Trent. The tour was led by the Friends of Chatterley Whitfield and Urban Wilderness CIC as part of a patnership project with Keele University.
During the visit, former employees guided the tour and gave a background to life and work at the colliery. They gave us chance to pause, write, draw, take photographs and audio recordings, and to experience the site creatively.
The film draws comparisons between the stoic image of the headstocks left to stand watch, and the role of the volunteers who continue to tend the site and support the interpretation of its heritage. The site is now protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
The poem is read by my grandad, a native of a mining town in North Nottinghamshire. His voice reflects the overlap in accents and dialect found between mining communities across the Midlands.
With thanks to Ben Anderson, Ceri Morgan, the Friends of Chatterley Whitfield and Urban Wilderness CIC.
Groundkeepers