The ‘Walking Together’ memorial trail commemorates the 106 miners who lost their lives in the three major disasters at Markham Colliery in 1937, 1938 and 1973 with a sculptural steel figure for each one.
Artist Stephen Broadbent developed the concept with guidance from the local community. The route symbolises a miner’s journey to the pit - and back home again. Each figure bears a tag with the name of the miner, his age, occupation and the year of the disaster.
The Walking Together project has been a ten year journey which has been led by Derbyshire County Council, HBD and Markham Vale Heritage Group volunteers, coordinated by Beam and enabled by many funders, sponsors and supporters.
The trail was fundraised for and installed in phases over ten years and was completed in Autumn 2022.
The memorial is located at the Markham Vale Business Park - the former Markham Colliery area has been reclaimed and is home to Derbyshire County council’s £94m Markham Vale regeneration scheme, which is working to create 4,100 jobs on site for local people and is underpinned by a philosophy of sustainability, accessibility and quality.
Read more about Walking Together.
Gallery
Photos from Walking Together project.