THREE significant anniversaries are to be marked during a history society’s latest exhibition. Evenwood, Ramshaw and District History Society will spotlight the area’s involvement in the D-Day landings 80 years ago, including a villager who took part in the invasion, and two others who lost their lives in the Battle of Normandy.
It will also mark the 40th year since Randolph Coke Works closed and 25 years since a decorative coal tub commemorating the area’s mining heritage was unveiled to great fanfare at Ramshaw.
The exhibition will be at the Randolph Community Centre from Friday, May 31, to Sunday, June 2.
Society member and war historian, Kevin Richardson, said the D-Day element of the display would focus on local soldier Ronnie Heaviside who was part of the invasion force.
“Ronnie was in the marines and he was on a landing craft at D-Day,” said Kevin. “We don’t know whether it was tank landing craft or a personnel landing craft, because he never said.”
It will also feature Thomas Henry Stokoe and Wilfred Gordon Arkless who died in the Battle of Normandy.
Mr Richardson hoped those who come to see the display might have more information.
“Someone may come forward and say ‘my dad might have been there’, because the 50th Northumbrian Division, the territorials of the 6th Durham Light Infantry – our local territorials – were there on the first day of D-Day.”
Randolph Coke Works, vital in the economy, heritage and social life of Evenwood for many years, closed in 1984.
Brian Carter of the society said: “We have a file of press cuttings from when it was closed to when the land was handed over for redeveloping.
“We have quite a lot of pictures of how it was, what it looked like when it was being demolished and we have quite a lot of photos of the people who worked there and their working situations and social situations.”
The most recent part of the display will be the dedication of a coal tub at Ramshaw.
Society member Jackie Dodds said: “It was 1999 when the coal tub went up. We have got a lot of photographs. It is starting to deteriorate and although not desperate, if it is left it will get worse.”
The society has approached Evenwood Engineering (now called Fablink), which was involved in constructing the tub, to carry out repairs.
The group has moved into larger facilities at Randolph Community Centre for better archive storage and more space for members to work.
Mrs Dodds said: “We would like to thank the trustees of the Randolph Community Centre, and the centre manager John Bogle and Barbara Nicholson for all they do for us. They are very supportive.”
Much of the archive has been saved digitally and can be viewed at evenwoodramshawdistricthistorysociety.uk.
