George Westgarth’s ‘Mostly Mining’

Hetton Big Club hosted an exhibition of George Westgarth's unique artworks in June. George who is best known for his paintings of mining scenes on pit helmets which have been shown all around the world, is a versatile artist who also paints on traditional artist's canvas, makes clay sculptures on mining themes and now has turned his creative talents to writing poetry.

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George has painted hundreds of helmets and as George said "Every helmet is an original and has been used down the pit. When I started, I used to salvage the discarded helmets from the refuse at the pit baths. The baths attendant used to collect them for me and keep them in a locker for me to collect. They were all dirty and greasy and I had to clean them up before I could start work on them."

He also has painted a series of pictures of banners on canvas that are proudly displayed in clubs around the County including Houghton, Eppleton, Lambton and Beamish.

Hetton Club has a permanent display of three large George Westgath originals. There are two paintings of Eppleton Colliery where George worked as a blacksmith for 42 years, one a view of the colliery in 1900, painted from a photo, and the other shows the same view in 1982, the year George retired. He said, " its amazing just how much it had changed". At first I said to myself why, that can't be the same colliery".

The third painting is a picture of his uncle Ernie driving the loco through Hetton from Lyon Colliery to the bottom of Copt Hill where it joined the network of lines that ended up at Lambton Drops.

George, who is now 82 years old, has kept his hand in as a blacksmith, working at Bowes Railway where he retains his membership and he still works at Ryhope Pumping Station, mostly advising the blacksmith Les Jordan who George trained. The pumping station attracts some VIP visitors who have admired George's work. George presented Fred Dibna, the famous steeplejack and TV presenter with a painting of steam winding engine that Fred displayed in his collection of industrial history. He also presented a ram's head poker made by him and Les Jordon to Prince Charles who said, "At last, I have been given something useful for a change". And when John Reed, the Government Minister, visited the pumping station he said how much he fancied an arrowhead sculpture that George had made, inspired by an archaeological find that he had seen on TV. George gave the arrowhead to The Minister who said he wanted to use it as a letter opener.

George lives in an Aged Miners homes at Four Lane Ends, Hetton, He said, " I live between two pubs, The Fox and The New Inn - the trouble is I don't drink".

Since losing his sight in one eye George can't paint now, although he loves to exhibit his considerable collection of past work and his daughter is helping him to record and catalogue his complete works. He has now turned his hand to writing poetry to continue to depict his "Mostly Mining" themes and is currently working on a poem about opencast mining and another about "Putters and Ponies".

Saw Painting: "A lady I know had been returned from Canada where she had seen a painted lumberjack's saw on display in a hotel and she asked me if I could paint a miner's saw for her. I thought it was a great idea so I got hold a couple of saws and painted scenes of Eppleton Colliery."

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