Today was a sad day. Owen a friend and inspiration was buried in Six Bells. Owen was a miner, for 35 years.
For his entire life he lived in the terraced house where he had been born 84 years earlier. Owen Tucker was deeply honest, generous and spoke his mind, in a mild-mannered way. He was a man of the community and respected by the community. As a member of the Mines Rescue Team, he was one of of the first on the scene after the Six Bells mining disaster in 1960 that killed 45 fellow miners. He rarely talked about it, but he did, in harrowing detail, for the the Coal Face project. A keen photographer, Owen would often accompany myself when looking for locations. He had a wonderful face. It was full of stories. I photographed him several times, most recently in 3-d for the Arts Council R+D project that led to the Coal Face installation. He was the poster “boy” for the Coal Face that was part of Diffusion 2019 “Sound and Vision”. R.I.P Owen Tucker – 10th Feb 1935 – 14th August 2019 –