Mining statue unveiled at old Tinsley Towers site
SYMCAA statue honouring Yorkshire's mining heritage has been unveiled on the former site of Sheffield's famous Tinsley Towers.
The Waiting Miner sculpture is a replica of an original work by Harry Phillips.
It spent most of its life at E.ON's headquarters in Coventry before being moved to the firm's Blackburn Meadows renewable energy plant.
A plaque on the side of the plinth bears an inscription from George Orwell's 1937 novel The Road to Wigan Pier, saying: "If there is one type of man to whom I do feel myself inferior, it is a coal miner."
The statue was formally unveiled in its new home by South Yorkshire's Mayor, Oliver Coppard, at a ceremony also attended by representatives from The National Union of Mineworkers.
Coppard said: "The Waiting Miner is a powerful tribute to the generations of people who worked in our pits and helped build South Yorkshire.
"It honours a heritage we're immensely proud of and ensures those stories won't be forgotten.
"The statue links our proud industrial past with the industries that will power South Yorkshire's future".
The original statue was first installed at Richborough Power Station in Kent and later donated by Richborough's owners Powergen, now E.ON, to Dover District Council following the power station's closure. It now stands on the former site of Betteshanger Colliery as a memorial to Kent's mining past.
Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
