A new art installation and display celebrating coal mining's pit ponies has opened at a Northumberland museum today (Saturday May 28).
Woodhorn Museum is hosting the exhibition 'Work, Rest and Play' and consist of new work by visual artist Bethan Maddocks and historical items from the Museums Northumberland collection that paint a picture of what life was like for the hardworking pit ponies at Woodhorn Colliery and other coal mining sites across the region. Visitors to the new display will see original harnesses and headgear used by pit ponies at Woodhorn, Ellington and Lynemouth collieries; memorial plaques dedicated to ponies who lost their lives in mining disasters; farrier tools; and photographs depicting the much-loved animals and their lives both down the mines and on the surface.
A series of new works by Bethan Maddocks will also go on display as part of her countywide exhibition, A Northumberland Menagerie, which is currently on display at Hexham Old Gaol, Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum and Berwick Museum and Art Gallery, as well as Woodhorn. Inspired by the story of a local pit pony named Flax, the last working pit pony at Ellington Colliery, three paper-crafted installations explore different stages of the animals' lives; from hard work down the pit, being brought to the surface for heydays and holidays, and being put to pasture at the end of their working lives.
