Michael Eavis has opened "Colliers' Copse ' at Camerton.

The Copse is a beautiful nature reserve with a footpath running through it lovingly restored by the Trustees of Camerton Village Hall.

It has been dedicated to all the coal miners and their families who lived in Camerton Parish and mined at Camerton Old Pit 1781-1898 and Camerton New Pit 1800-1950. Some miners from Camerton and also the wider Somerset Coalfield attended the opening ceremony which included a fabulous lunch provided by the Somerset Miners' Welfare Trust (SMWT).

The opening ceremony was performed by Michael Eavis, President of the Somerset Miners' Welfare Trust and Honorary Patron of Somerset Coalfield Life at Radstock Museum.

For those who don't know, Michael Eavis worked at New Rock Colliery in Chilcompton. He would milk his cows at Worthy Farm in the early hours, then go to work a shift at the coal mine in Chilcompton before returning to the farm to milk the cows, go to bed and repeat the same every day in order to afford to keep Worthy Farm.

Tom Randall, Volunteer from Radstock Museum, researched and put together an exhibition of the history of Camerton focussing particularly on the village's coal mines which the former miners in attendance remembered so well. Many thanks to Bryn Hawkins Chairman of the SMWT and all the SMWT and Camerton Village Hall Trustees for putting on this wonderful afternoon event.