Born and Bred

Field's Story

Field Clark was a coal miner, who lived and worked in Rothwell all his life. He started working in one of the many mines in the Rothwell area when he left school around the age of 14. He spent all his working life underground, mostly as a "Hewer". A Coal Hewer was the man working at the coal face actually producing (or Hewing the coal) from the seam of coal. Most of the coal produced from our Coal Mines prior to 1950 was from seams 5 feet or more thick (1.5 metres).

He was also a very good landscape painter (though he himself didn't think he was that good). Field used to raffle off some of his paintings at the local Mechanic's Institute, in Rothwell, in order help raise funds for families in need either due to deaths at the pit or injuries that prevented them from working.

Upon his death, his grandson's wife (Eileen Roberts) gave each member of the surviving family one or more of Field's paintings. One was given to my mother-in-law who then passed it on to Janet, my Wife. It has recently been re-mounted and framed and now hangs on the wall in our living room.

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