Miners' Memorial to be Erected in Sauchie
Published on:
31
July 2012
Council Leader Gary Womersley is congratulating Sauchie Community Group on their achievement in raising the cash required to erect a memorial in commemoration of local miners and the contribution made by the 'Bevan Boys' in the community.
The granite memorial is set to be erected in Sauchie and will be inscribed with the words:
"To commemorate the legacy of the mining industry of Sauchie village, unveiled during the Queen's Jubilee 2012. Their darkness, our light."
A tilley lamp will also be engraved into the stone.
Funding has been obtained from the Scottish Coal Industry Special Welfare Fund, and the Clackmannanshire Community Chest. The community group has also held fundraising events, the most recent of which saw the group raise the final amount required to pay for the memorial stone.
Councillor Womersley attended the fundraising soup and sandwich lunch and said afterwards: "Sauchie, like much of Clackmannanshire, has a significant mining heritage which deserves to be remembered. I have been impressed with the way Sauchie Community Group has worked to accomplish their goal. I am delighted to have been able to support the Group as it has sought to implement the communities' desire for a fitting memorial"
Mining in Sauchie dates back over 400 years and the development of Sauchie from three small, separate villages into a larger town in the 19th and 20th centuries is in main due to the rows of miners cottages which were built for the miners who worked in John Francis Erskine's pits. Most of the original cottages were demolished during the 1950s.
Keith Turner from Sauchie Community Group said: "We wanted to do something in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year and we decided that a miners' memorial was appropriate. During the Second World War miners came from all over the country and were billeted in Bevan Huts in Sauchie, because it was the national training centre for miners. This continued for decades after the war, and many local residents will remember the training hall and Bevan Huts in Sauchie. There's no trace of them now, so we thought their work deserved to be recognised. We've had a lot of support for our fundraising and Mossmans have offered to engrave the granite stone and lay it for free, which we appreciate."
