The Miner or The Anderton Mining Monument, St Helens Linkway, St Helens

Sculpture. 1964 by Arthur Fleischmann commissioned by Lord Robens, Chairman of the National Coal Board, bronze cast by John Galizia & Son Ltd, Battersea.

MATERIALS: bronze bust, steel cutting drum, fibreglass lump of coal and spiral screw base, both coloured bronze.

PLAN: free-standing sculpture of head, shoulders and arms of a miner set on a column formed of a steel cutting drum on a spiral screw, raised on a plinth and high, square pedestal of railway sleepers*.

DESCRIPTION: the statue is sculpted in a heroic and monumental manner, depicting a realistic bronze bust of a miner’s head, shoulders and raised arms holding a large lump of coal above head height. The miner wears a mining helmet with attached light, and his physical strength is shown by the muscles of his unclothed body. The bronze bust is set on a column divided into two equal parts by three circular discs. The upper part is formed by a steel cutting drum; the lower part is formed by a bronze-coloured spiral screw of fibreglass. The statue now stands on a high, square pedestal formed of railway sleepers standing on a railway sleeper plinth*, which is a later C20 addition.

*Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that the modern railway sleeper pedestal and plinth are not of special architectural or historic interest.