A short history of the site
The sculptures are in an area of Mill Pond meadow Nature Reserve. In 2014, in commemoration of the centenary of the start of the First World War, a Commemorative wood was planted by the Town Council and the Wakefield Woodland Trust in honour of the 353 service men who were killed in the 1914-1918 World War I. A total of 353 trees were planted, one for each resident of Featherstone who lost his/her life.
In 2018, the centenary of the end of the First World War, a 20 foot tall sculpture of a war horse was erected titled 'War Horse, A Place of Peace to be Together'. It commemorated the men who fought in the war, but also the large number of horses that were used in the war, and the many that died in the fighting.
This group of sculpture
The group of 6 sculptures is titled 'Fighting From Home' and this time shines a light on the impact the war not just in the trenches in Europe, but on the home front.
The sculptures will include a series of figures in the shape of a coal worker, a munitions girl, a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse, a refugee and a mother with a child. The sixth sculpture represents the sense of loss and is a wounded soldier bending down, resting on a crutch, to pick a poppy from the ground.
The miner
There were a number of coal mines around Featherstone and the miners were vital for supplying coal for the war effort.
The sculpture depicts a miner carrying a banner representing the fact that he worked at the Ackton Hall coal mine, a nearby coal mine.
At the time of the First World War miners were members of the Miners Federation of Great Britain, although the workers in each coal mine were largely independent.
In 1945 the coal mines were nationalised and at the same time the Miners Federation of Great Britain became the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Each coalmine's workers retained a degree of autonomy but the new organisation had wider influence.
Each branch of the NUM made banners to represent their area.
The banner that this sculpture is holding is actually the design introduced from 1945 after nationalisation, but is being used here to depict that he is a local coal miner.
The center of the banner shows a woman in a chariot being pulled by 4 galloping horses. Above this is the phrase 'Oraganisation the key to economic emancipation' and underneath the chariot the words, 'towards the dawn'.
The full wording on the banner is as follows.
NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS
YORKSHIRE AREA
ACTON HALL BRANCH
ORGANISATION THE KEY TO ECONOMIC EMANCIPATION
TOWARDS THE DAWN
ONE UNION FOR ALL
The group of sculptures, made from galvanised steel wire were unveiled on the 17th June 2022.
Free car parking is available at Featherstone Lions Rugby club car park on Wakefield Road, and there is a path leading from there to the memorial wood and all the sculptures.