The sculpture was commissioned by landowner Bothal Estates, part of the Welbeck Estates, to reflect the area’s mining heritage of the past, present and future.
It is officially named Fire but is now affectionately known as Robin of Pegswood because Welbeck Estates also owns part of Sherwood Forest – home of Robin Hood.
The estates approached Longhirst based artist Tom Maley to produce the sculpture. He came up with the idea of a miner cast in bronze, fixed to a stainless steel girder and emerging from an 18in high coal seam.
The miner symbolically firing his shovel against an imaginary coalface was meant as a permanent reminder of the strength and determination of the men who worked in some of the most challenging conditions in coal seams as narrow as 18 inches.
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