insideKENT Magazine Issue 64 - July 2017 | Page 162

NEWS
CANTEEN SOCIAL
LAUNCHES IN KENT
This summer, Canteen Social brings Street Food to Kent for the final
bank holiday blow out. The best hand-picked street food traders will
take over Tenterden's Market Square for one evening only on Saturday
26th August, launching Canteen Social in Kent. Think craft burgers
and stone baked pizzas, BBQ'd ribs and veggie treats. They'll be joined
by the likes of Burger Bros, Stoned Pizza and One in the Oven, with
more traders to be announced over the coming weeks. Add a bar
brimming with English wines, Kentish ciders, local beers and more
plus music from the best local talent, and you'll have all you need for
an evening shared with friends in the heart of the county.
Market Square, Tenterden TN30, 7pm til late Saturday 26th August 2017
CanteenSocial
MINERS REUNITED FOR MINING MUSEUM COLLECTION
Kent Mining Heritage Foundation has unearthed a unique
collection of images offering a glimpse into life at
Betteshanger Colliery and reunited ex-miners in the process.
The set of 36 black and white negatives has been gifted to
the new Heritage Lottery-funded Kent Mining Museum,
which is opening at Betteshanger Park, near Deal, in 2018.
Darran Cowd, museum and heritage manager, Kent Mining
Museum, said: “With picture research for the Kent Mining
Museum displays underway, a phone message from
someone, who we now know as Mike Dugdale, saying
they had some photographs of a Kent colliery was too good
an opportunity to miss. This was just the start of what
turned out to be an amazing journey into the past of the
Kent Coalfield.”
Hythe-based photographer and cameraman Mike Dugdale
visited Betteshanger Colliery in 1968 as a student of Medway
College of Art & Design, looking to take photographs of the
miners. The resulting collection of images show miners
both in groups and individually as they change shifts. They
show a very human side to Kent’s bygone industry, catching
the miners in a brief moment of respite.
Mike recalled: “On my visit to Betteshanger I was allowed
free access to all surface areas. By absolute luck, as I arrived
near the pithead, a group of young apprentices, a few years
younger than myself, had just emerged and I simply placed
this group of coal dust-covered lads in front of the winding
gear and took several photographs.”
The discovery of the images launched a research project
for the Kent Mining Museum team to identify the miners
from the photographs. With the help of the local mining
communities, many have now been named. This has
subsequently led to a reunion of photographer and some
of the subjects almost fifty years after Mike’s first visit to
Betteshanger.
The Museum is actively looking for further stories and
items about the Kent Coalfield. If you have something, a
badge, books, photographs, Davy lamp, tools or a
grandparent’s diary telling of their journey to Kent, the team
urge you