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A historic statue has finally returned to a Batley museum after an official unveiling earlier this week, 12 years after being removed from the public eye.

The Dignity of Labour Statue had been a permanent fixture near the entrance at Bagshaw Museum in Wilton Park since 1911 until it was removed 100 years later following a reorganisation of the exhibits.

In its original form, the bronze statue depicted a coal miner mounted on a huge block of coal to recognise the work the miners did in the local area.

However, in the years of its absence, it had to be restored by a team within Kirklees due to the mound of coal disintegrating and has now officially been rehomed within the industrial history of Batley section of the museum after a ceremony on Bank Holiday Monday involving local councillors and historians.

The Dignity of Labour Statue at the Bagshaw Museum

A delighted Tony Dunlop, a local history researcher who hosted the event, said:

“I think everybody there was very impressed with the way that the Kirklees team had managed to put the statue back together again and the quality of the presentation was first class.

“I hadn’t seen it before. When people arrived they were taken into a side room and then we had the moment where we all walked down together to see it.

“I hadn’t been near the place for weeks deliberately just so that I could have a bit of a surprise as well. But when we all saw it we all thought it was absolutely splendid and everybody was simply delighted.

From left to right: Coun Gwen Lowe, Tony Dunlop, Adele Poppleton (Director of Culture and Visitors, Kirklees), Steven Wyatt (Coal Mining Industry Historian from Barnsley) and Paul Gales (Manager Bagshaw Museum).

“It was part of one of the first exhibits that Walter Bagshaw put into the new museum and it is nice to think that it is going to be there forever and a day.

“The public started coming at 12pm and there were quite a few people interested in what was going on. People were asking what it was about as they knew nothing about the history of it but they said what a remarkable piece of sculpture it was.”

On the restoration of the sculpture, Tony explained:

“They put it on a plinth and surrounded the plinth with pieces of coal, so it still looks like he is standing on coal.

“They have also cleaned and polished the original silver plaque and that looks remarkable as well.”

‘Absolutely splendid’ - Dignity of Labour Statue returns to Batley’s Bagshaw Museum