Major Miner

Over the course of the weekend artist Ian Walton and around 10 volunteers mounted a guerilla style operation to install this sculpture as a tribute to the miners of North Wales.

They hauled the sculpture and a large quantity of concrete to the top of 6 million ton spoil tip of the former Bersham pit in Wrexham which closed over 30 years ago. There is local opposition, by those who believe it should be retained as a sign of the industrial heritage of the area, to a plan to have the tip removed by 2020.

Walton says, “ “We construct memorials of the gentlemen bosses but why not the men who actually did all the grafting and lost their lives in the blackness. I feel very passionately about our industrial heritage and its something the people of Wrexham should be proud of. I hope he will be a lasting reminder of our rich industrial past and the hard working men without whom there could never have been an industrial revolution. He stands proud with his bead bowed in reverence and silent remembrance."