Speaker / Performer: Chris Harrison. A musical evening, featuring poems by Joseph Skipsey, a self-educated coal miner, set to music by his great-great-grandson, Chris Harrison. Joseph Skipsey, ‘The Pitman Poet’, was born in Northumberland in 1832. He began colliery work aged seven. Having taught himself to read & write, he published his first book of poems in 1859. Chris has set 24 of Skipsey’s poems to music, calling the project “Carols from the Coalfields”, after the collection which Skipsey published in 1886.

7.30pm Buffet (please bring something if you can) 8.00pm Talk & discussion till 10pm & back to buffet.