Statue Pays Tribute to Mining Past

By Lyn Barton

A statue celebrating the industry on which a Cornish town was built has been hauled into place as the final part of an ambitious renovation scheme.

The 2m-tall bronze sculpture of a Cornish miner now stands in the heart of Redruth.

It was made by artist David Annand and forms the final major installment of the project to improve the town.

Cornwall County Council’s executive member for strategic planning and transport, Matt McTaggart, said: “This statue is the crowning glory to the town’s Public Realm scheme.

“Redruth’s role in the history of Cornish mining is well documented and as the capital of the greatest of all Cornwall’s mining areas – important for its marketing, financial, managerial and institutional roles – it is very fitting a mining statue should stand within the town to acknowledge the town’s heritage.”

Mr Annand, who lives in Scotland, was one of five shortlisted artists who were asked to create further models and drawings for the pride of place installation.

His ideas, exhibited in the Cornwall Centre in December 2006, won widespread backing during a public consultation.

The final decision to commission him was taken by the Mining Art Group with the addition of young art ambassadors from Redruth School.

“What I felt was needed in Redruth was a tin miner with the accoutrements of the trade,” said Mr Annand.

“One solitary figure standing holding his pole pick, with a fan of candles round his neck and the esoteric helmet and candle on his head.

“I have gone for the era that was before the carbide and the Davy or the battery lamps, because this era had a more quintessentially Cornish feel.

“Also, I felt that the ‘simplest is best’ approach was needed.

“I hope people will be able to look at this miner’s face and see the hardship, warmth, courage and tenacity written large and clear as he welcomes you to the heart of Redruth and the present. The pole pick, the candles and the ingot of tin are fabricated in stainless steel to give them more prominence and the semblance of tin.”

Local historian and author Michael Tangye said it was right to pay tribute to what Cornish miners had achieved at the forefront of the technology of their time and their impact on the rest of the world.

“Many indigenous Redruth families will be pleased to see the statue of a traditional Cornish miner erected in Fore Street,” he said. “It is a truly fitting tribute to their forebears who worked in local mines, which extended beneath the very streets on which they walk today.

“It was they who, with incredible courage, left Cornwall in their thousands, often to avoid starvation, to take their unsurpassed skills of hard rock mining to the rest of the world.”

(c) 2008 Western Morning News, The Plymouth (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.