Beneath the Banner

“And another thing I remember is the blue scars. Every miner had blue scars.”

During the 1900s, coal mining was at the heart of millions of lives.
Kent was part of this story.

Up The Road Theatre’s latest production digs deep into the stories of coal mining, the people and its communities.

Gail is aware of her Grandad’s life as a coal miner, but she needs to know more. She needs to know what her Grandad did in his years underground, and why he never spoke about it. Aubrey could help her, but Aubrey doesn’t want to talk.

Told partly through the words of former miners and their families, many from the Kent coalfields, Beneath the Banner shines a light on the unheard, unseen and untold stories of coal mining. Pit nurses and pit head baths, Coal Queens to canaries, courage and comedy, from Kent to Cumbria.

A brand-new play from Kent company Up The Road Theatre, in association with The National Coal Mining Museum,  Yorkshire.

“I loved living up Mill Hill, we knew everybody, there was always a lot of us, all playing together, rain or shine.”