Temple Newsam: Explore the history of coal mining in the Blot on the Landscape Mining Trail

A group of volunteers have delved into hundreds of years of Leeds heritage to create a new mining trail at Temple Newsam.
By Rebecca Marano
Published 18th Feb 2022, 04:45 BST
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The estate’s new Blot on the Landscape Mining Trail gives visitors the chance to explore the fascinating story of coal mining at Temple Newsam.

Coal mining at the east Leeds estate took place from the 1700s through to the opencast mining operations in 1987.

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The project evolved from the award-winning Blot on the Landscape Exhibition in 2019, which scooped the Regional and National Marsh Award from the British Museum for a Community Curated Project.

The trail invites visitors to explore some of the sites and locations which where a succession of deep shaft, drift and open cast mining operations took place and where large swathes of the parkland were once dug up.The trail invites visitors to explore some of the sites and locations which where a succession of deep shaft, drift and open cast mining operations took place and where large swathes of the parkland were once dug up.
The trail invites visitors to explore some of the sites and locations which where a succession of deep shaft, drift and open cast mining operations took place and where large swathes of the parkland were once dug up.

Using funding from the Marsh Award along with Arts Council and Resilient Heritage Lottery funding, the group, which includes former pit workers and miners, worked over the last two years with former assistant community curator, Helen Pratt and Temple Newsam’s volunteer coordinator Karen Mackie to develop the mining trail around Temple Newsam Park.

The trail invites visitors to explore some of the sites and locations which where a succession of deep shaft, drift and open cast mining operations took place and where large swathes of the parkland were once dug up.

Helen said: “It’s so difficult to imagine the immense scope and scale of the mining operations which once took place at Temple Newsam and the beautiful parkland we enjoy today is testament to the efforts of all those who have been part of that transformation over the years.

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“Thankfully the estate has recovered in the intervening decades, but what’s left is a fascinating legacy of experience and history which those who worked down those mines have shared with us.”

Blot on the Landscape, an exhibition on Mining at Temple Newsam.. Volunteers Pictured from the Karen Mackie, Richard Watt, Ian Marr, Mike Sterland and Helen Pratt. Photo: Simon Hulme.Blot on the Landscape, an exhibition on Mining at Temple Newsam.. Volunteers Pictured from the Karen Mackie, Richard Watt, Ian Marr, Mike Sterland and Helen Pratt. Photo: Simon Hulme.
Blot on the Landscape, an exhibition on Mining at Temple Newsam.. Volunteers Pictured from the Karen Mackie, Richard Watt, Ian Marr, Mike Sterland and Helen Pratt. Photo: Simon Hulme.

The Marsh Award has also helped to fund a travelling photographic and art exhibition, Eye of the Miner, that will be touring the country from April 2022.

Temple Newsam was the setting for a succession of huge mining operations as recently as the late 1970s, with similarly large-scale digs throughout the 1940s, when the Ministry of Fuel and Power requisitioned the land from Leeds on September 1, 1942 and again on July 21, 1945.

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