The next meeting of the East Midlands Coalmining Heritage Forum is on Saturday 21st October 2017 and is being hosted by the South Derbyshire Mining Preservation Group at their HQ at Gresley Old Hall and later at the nearby Conkers Discovery Centre (ex Rawdon Colliery site). Visits take place in the earlier part of the day from 11am with the Forum meeting taking place at the Conkers Discovery Centre from 2pm – 3.30pm.
The East Midlands Coalmining Heritage Forum is in the process of being formed mainly to help improve communication and networking between coalmining heritage groups and organisations in the region, establish links with higher education establishments and to try and ensure that important documentation and artefacts are not lost in the event of the worst scenario – think Snibston, the John King Museum and the DH Lawrence Heritage Centre, all of which have closed since 2015.
A steering group have been working on the main aims and objectives for the Forum which includes the setting up of a Constitution etc. The Steering Group had a meeting with representatives from the National Coalmining Museum for England at the end of May 2017 and they are interested in working with the Forum as a proto-type for forming regional coalmining heritage hubs. One of the early parts of this initiative will be the running of a Coalmining Heritage Day Workshop during the autumn / winter period 2017-18.