The Special Collections team at the University of Sunderland Library had a great day at Sunderland History Fair (18th May 2024), showing items from our NEEMARC mining archive,
and giving a preview of the Kate Adie Collection, currently being catalogued. Events like this give a fascinating picture of the rich life of our city through the years. Suddenly the groups of people working away all year round to conserve their slice of history for current and future generations all come together to form a fantastic mosaic showing how life has been lived here right up to our own time.
There is so much to discover talking to the stall holders of so many groups, exchanging information and welcoming visitors to our own stall. Many visitors over the years have talked to us about their mining ancestors, their interest in their local area, their research into what life was like for those living where we now live, but in a different time. Perhaps one day a future generation will be talking about what life was like for us!
We have attended local history events since the NEEMARC Collection (North East England Mining Archive and Research Centre), funded by a Heritage Lottery award, was set up in 2007. This collection contains records from The National Union of Mineworkers Durham Area (NUM), The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (NEIMME) and the Durham branch of the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers (NACODS). The main aim of the project is to preserve and catalogue the primary archival material within the NEEMARC collections and to make the items accessible to a wide range of users.
This is a time of anniversaries for our mining history, particularly the miners' strikes of the 1970s and 1980s and the pit closures, Wearmouth being the last in the region in December 1993. The mining industry and mining communities are not forgotten; their stories are still told and heard through families and local communities and through the work of the groups who curate their history and who gather at events like the Sunderland History Fair. The current exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle acknowledges the place of coal in its current Turner exhibition (Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia ), quoting John Kippin referring to the tensions between the tragic loss of life and injuries in the industry and the understandable nostalgia for the strong communities it produced.