Durham Miner Website in DevelopmentThe Durham Miner project is working with the Durham County Council web and database teams to create an exciting and interactive website. The site will include mining information collected throughout the county relating to the coal, lead and fluorspar industries.
With the help of the project groups out in the community, we are looking to record details about every colliery from within the Durham Coal Field and every lead and fluorspar mine within the North Pennies Region. We aim to have part of the website active by Christmas 2002. | |
DMM and Durham Miner Working Together
Many thanks to the Durham Miners Museum for linking their website to ours. A recent meeting between Neil Bowerbank and Kev Duncan has forged a great relationship between the two organisations. The sharing and creation of complimentary information will hopefully be of substantial benefit to all. The DMM has a huge array of well researched and referenced coal mining information which will be used as part of the Durham Miner Accredited Courses. The DMM website can be found at
www.dmm.org.uk.
NCB/DTI Grant Permission to Broadcast
At last we have discovered who owns the copyright to NCB video footage. The Department of Trade and Industry have granted us permission to broadcast via our website any NCB video footage that we acquire. Many thanks to the member of the public who is currently loaning us his NCB footage collection. Should anyone else have any footage that they feel could be useful, please contact us for a chat.
Thanks to Brian Pears
Many thanks to Brian Pears for contributing a large amount of data which relates to a number of coal mines from around the region. This will act as a substantial foundation for the development of the project database. Brian's research can be viewed at
www.genuki.org.uk.
New Project Staff Appointed
We would like to welcome 5 new members of staff to the project. They should all be starting within the next few months and will be working with and supporting the project groups throughout the county. The new staff are highly skilled and experienced in researching local history and working with community groups. As well as working with the groups and collecting information for the website, the staff will also be helping to facilitate visits to museums, record offices and libraries throughout the region for those involved in the research. More information about the individual members of staff will be added as the project progresses.
Accredited Courses Being Developed - We need your support!
We are developing accredited courses where people involved in the research for the project will gain recognised qualifications for their input. There will be no registrations or course fees for those involved. Three courses are being created: two relate to researching local mining history and one involves researching and collecting Local Mining Oral History.
You can register your interest in participating in the courses by contacting the project team. The courses are due to start in early January.
We are looking for volunteers to participate in a pilot study for these courses. The pilot study will take place towards the end of this year and is an essential part of the project. Please contact the team if you wish to participate or just to get some more information.
Hunting for TreasureThank you to all the people who have offered to loan us articles and documents from their private collections to add to the website. It is wonderful to have such a positive response. We still need to collect at least 1000 more articles to add to the website so if you have anything that you feel is applicable to the project please call the team for an informal chat. | |
Get Involved and Preserve the Past
As we mentioned in the previous newsletter, we are looking to develop research groups throughout the county. Our project staff will work with the groups and aid them in their research. We are very flexible and are willing to fit in with the time scales of the community groups. Anyone is welcome to get involved so contact us right away!
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