This Evening we attended an event at the Durham Miner’s Hall. I was very surprised when seeing the building for the first time. I expected it to be a lot smaller and to look less modern. The condition of the rooms show the pride that the people had and still have today.
Michael Chaplin spoke about the life and work of his father, Sid Chaplin. Sid Chaplin was a pit worker in the Dean and Chapter Colliery. His work and his marras down the mine gave him some of his inspiration for his short stories. I expected there to be a lot more stories and information about his father’s life down the mine and more about the Dean and Chapter Colliery. However, Michael gave me a more rounded outlook on mining life in a smaller town.
Michael spoke of his father’s saying, “the zest of storytelling is lost in the re-writing”. This has stuck with me because I feel like within this project we want to keep the “zest” of the stories alive. This is why I found this event interesting as we can now take the stories and pass them on to relight a spark in our community heritage.