Exhibition

The Bevin Boys - War’s Forgotten Workforce

28 Mar 2018 – 30 Sep 2018

Regular hours

Wednesday
10:00 – 18:00
Thursday
10:00 – 18:00
Friday
10:00 – 18:00
Saturday
10:00 – 18:00
Sunday
10:00 – 18:00
Tuesday
10:00 – 18:00

Cost of entry

Adult: £4
Concessions: £3 (over 60s, full-time students, unwaged)
Under 16s: Free
Carers: Free*
Groups: Buy 10 and get the 11th ticket free (must be pre-booked)
Arts Pass/ Historic Houses members: Free

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Featuring art by four former Bevin Boys Ted Holloway, Tom McGuinness, David McClure and John Tipton, the exhibition commemorates 75 years since the Bevin Boys scheme began.

About

To this day the Bevin Boys remain largely unknown, so this exhibition aims to raise awareness about their significant role in British history and culture, particularly in relation to Mining Art.

It marks the 10 year anniversary of the Bevin Boys’ formal acknowledgment by the UK government, when former Prime Minister Gordon Brown awarded commemorative badges, featuring a pithead and profile of a miner, to 27 men who were conscripted to work as miners during the Second World War. 

In 1943, Great Britain had been at war for four years and the government estimated that there were only three weeks of vital coal supply left. Minister for Labour Ernest Bevin tried to persuade workers to sign up for a job at the coal face, but when they did not respond he was forced to set up a compulsory conscription scheme. Every month, for 20 months, Bevin’s secretary drew numbers from a hat, and if the number drawn matched the last digit of a man’s National Service number, he was sent into the mines. Four out of every ten men appealed against their assignment, with some even choosing a prison sentence in protest, only to find they were still sent underground once their prison sentence was over. By the end of the scheme, 48,000 men from all walks of life had been thrust into the dark and dangerous world of coal mining.

In response to their experiences, some Bevin Boys created art, drawing and painting the underground world which was unlike anything they had known before.

What to expect? Toggle

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Tom McGuinness

John Tipton

David McClure

Ted Holloway

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