Man and Boy.

Bilston Glen Colliery, a mile or so up the road, closed in 1988 following the disastrous miners' strike of 1984/5 having opened in the mid '50s. It's deep workings extended widely, going underneath TD Towers (you can see the consequent subsidence from the bus-stop over the road) and on, under the Glen, to extend over a radius of about three miles. It produced a million tons of coal a year and supplanted the numerous local mines which all closed by 1970.

This wonderful statue is in Loanhead, a memorial to local miners who lost their lives underground; commissioned by the community council and sculpted by Alan Heriot, it was unveiled in 1987. I love the empathy portrayed between this father and his son who would, in all probability, be condemned to a life working in the pits.

Mrs TD, who knows about such things, says that this animal is too tall and too fine to be a pit pony, but agrees that it's a lovely statue.