Project Events

Madeley has featured in the first program of BBC Radio 4's series 'Worked Out'(Tuesday 14th February 2006). It looked at Britain's coalfields 20 years after they closed.

Ian McMillan is a poet, playwright and presenter. He explored the forgotten and marginal coalfields of England through the memories of those who worked in them.

Madeley is regarded as the cradle and the crucible of the Industrial Revolution. Featured in the program were Jack and May Smart, and Shelagh Lewis (Madeley Parish Council, Living History Project). Jack was leader of the Engineering Maintenance team at Kemberton Colliery coalfield and May worked in the Pit office. Shelagh Lewis oversaw the restoration of the 'Nine Men of Madeley' tomb. It commemorates the worst mining disaster in the Shropshire Coalfield.

A Poignant Poem

Jack Smart is lying on his low bed

His watch is ticking like water drips

Memories of underground flooding his head

The fault line shifts and the fault line slips

Those mates in the photographs - gone, all gone

Faces fading in the clenching dark

And Jack tells stories now he's the only one

As the ring road circles like a hungry shark

But Jack's voice is strong as it fills the room

And the still pit wheels turn once more

As deep underground a lamp cuts the gloom

And stories and memories open the door

Jack Smart is lying on his low bed

His watch is ticking like water drips

Memories of underground flooding his head

And the fault line shifts and the fault line slips

Copyright © Ian McMillan

Reproduced by kind permission of Shelagh Lewis Madeley Living History Project Manager.