Image source, Matt Sayers
- Author, Liz Copper
- Role, BBC Midlands Today
An artist is exhibiting drawings which aim to capture the atmosphere of coal mines and the conditions endured by generations of miners.
Matt Sayers used charcoal sticks and worked by lamplight in his Cannock studio to create pictures which evoke scenes from collieries in Staffordshire.
His work is on show in the When Coal was King exhibition at the Museum of Cannock Chase until mid-August.
“I just saw myself with a board, a brown bit of paper, a piece of charcoal, literally looking at someone carrying out their daily tasks,” Mr Sayers said of his work.
Image source, Matt Sayers
“It was challenging at first. I soon sort of got used to how I do it, or how the material would be,” he said.
Generations of miners spent most of their working lives underground, including at Littleton Colliery before it closed in 1993 with the loss of more than 500 jobs,
The colliery, in the village of Huntington near the outskirts of Cannock, was replaced by a housing estate, school, park and pharmacy.
Former miners visiting Mr Sayers’ exhibition praised the darkness, dust and “bleakness” within his artwork and said it evoked the smell and “damp aroma” of the Cannock Chase coalfield.
“Considering he’s never been down a mine himself, I think the way he draws it (is) absolutely unbelievable,” said one miner Colin White.
Charlie Ryan, former miner, described the atmosphere of the pits as “extremely noisy” and said that they hadn’t worn ear defenders.
“The dust and then the noise as well, and just the whole environment, it was quite unpleasant really, but we knew nothing else,” he said.
Another former miner, Malc Watkiss, said one of the “biggest shocks” during his time as a miner was travelling down the 1,300 ft deep mining shaft.
“For a young lad to get on there and experience that, you know, twice a day, it’s a very harsh thing, but we got used to it,” he said.
