Cottage connects Caroline to pit past (From St Helens Star)

Cottage connects Caroline to pit past

9:52am Thursday 22nd July 2010

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I HAVE a pile of stories and requests for information sent by fans of Coffey Time still in my storage boxes.

Don’t worry, they have not been forgotten. This is one of the oldest:

Caroline Jones is a local artist and mature student doing a BA(Hons) Degree in Art and Painting at the College. Her exhibition is currently at the Citadel till August.

She tells me: “My project on the degree course was on urban and natural landscapes. I live in Bold Heath and the project started at the front of my cottages because of the beautiful views of the old brook and Fiddlers Ferry, which can be seen from the front of my cottage.

“The Old Brook Cottages, on Warrington Road, have a lot of history to them and have been around since the 1700s. I am not sure when, but that’s what we have been lead to believe.

“Sutton Manor colliery owned them and they were used as miners’ cottages until 1946 when the colliery sold them. My husband’s family have lived in them since the 1960s and my husband bought two of them to keep them in the family, my mother-in-law lives in the third cottage. I have lived in the area only sixteen years.

“When my journey started, I wanted to show the history of the place where I live, and where my husband and his family have grown up. When I discovered the cottages were once used as miners’ homes, I wanted to look into the history of Sutton Manor Colliery.

“I have been on lots of websites to find out the history but cannot find many earlier photos of workers and the colliery in the early 1900s. There does not seem to be many historical pictures of the early days.

“Steve Wainwright kindly gave me some history through the Sutton Beauty and Heritage website, (www.suttonbeauty.org.uk) but I would love it if i could find some earlier photos from the beginning.

“I can see the Dream sculpture from the bottom of the cottage gardens. As an artist I can see both sides to the sculpture but the feelings people have given to me on the sculpture is that the money should have been spent on the regrowth of the Sutton Manor Colliery, in perhaps bringing a project to the area to help the people finding work or opening a place for young people to go. I know myself that the money was to be spent on an art project and that some of the miners had their say.

“I would have thought perhaps a miner’s head would have represented the miners and the heart of St Helens. But that’s just my input. Perhaps you could have had a museum that showed the Colliery’s History.

We should also remember the men that died at the colliery, and the strikes fighting the loss of jobs.

“I would love to show the colliery in a more historical way from past to present times, that could be more memorable. It would be great to talk to an ex-miner if that could be possible. Does any Star reader know anyone that could show me around the colliery site and talk to me so that I could get a better insight?

“My feelings are the history of the cottages I live in has some how connected me back to the history of Sutton Manor Colliery. I would love to connect my art to its history as this has been a great interest to me. I have done art work from World War II up to today in Iraq and won an Highly Commended award for my work, World War II Boxes, at the Halton Open Art Exhibition.

“In 2008 at the exhibition my art work made the Widnes Weekly News for the portrait of a young soldier carrying a dying child through a battle field with the guardian Angel for light. The painting was called The Unseen War in Iraq. It would be great to bring my feelings of the Sutton Manor Colliery back to life, with a series of drawings and paintings of a way of life in St Helens.”

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