Woodhorn Museum to become home to a Mik Critchlow collection in tribute to the Ashington documentary photography

To mark Mik Critchlow’s 70th birthday, and two years since his passing, the museum in Ashington has announced it will open a gallery dedicated to the acclaimed photographer this spring.

The Coal Town Collection will showcase more than 100 photographs from Critchlow’s Coal Town archive, which was first displayed at Woodhorn Museum in November 2021.

Chronicling the town and people of Ashington over four decades, ‘Coal Town’ provides a glimpse inside the town’s coalfield communities, capturing periods of major social, economic and political change in Northumberland.

The Coal Town Collection will also feature personal items on loan from Critchlow’s family, including cameras he collected and used during his career and unseen photographs that provide an insight into the man behind the camera.

Liz Ritson, director of Programmes and Engagement at Woodhorn Museum, said: “With a career spanning almost 45 years, Mik’s work is one of the most important historical archives we have of the end of deep coal mining in Northumberland.

“His emotive and deeply personal photographs do more than capture a moment in time; they tell a story of the people and communities he was part of in the town of Ashington."

Born and raised in Ashington, Mik Critchlow amassed an archive of over 50,000 pictures during his 44-year career – beginning photographing the people and street life of his hometown in 1977 after seeing an exhibition by The Ashington Group.

Maureen Critchlow, Mik’s wife, said: “Mik saw the Coal Town exhibition as the culmination of his life’s work within the area.

"Even though he’d worked on many projects, it was this one, spanning a period of over 40 years, that was most special to him. He had a deep understanding and empathy for the people who lived and worked in his home town.

“Mik had a longstanding association with Woodhorn Museum, having exhibited his work there many times over the years. He would have been honoured to have his work permanently housed in the museum.”

Shona Brown, Mik’s daughter, added: “My dad had an effortless ability to capture people’s emotions and personalities while simply going about their daily life.

"It’s easy to automatically think of ‘the miners’ themselves, and not their families or the effects the devastating loss of the industry had on the wider community."

Mik Critchlow’s work has also been exhibited and published by Side Gallery, Brunel University, Durham Art Gallery, Arts Council England, Northern Arts, The British Journal of Photography, and Creative Camera.

Speaking about the Coal Town exhibition in 2021, Mik said: “For the past 44 years I have photographed the town, people and surrounding areas of Ashington, the town in which I was born, educated and still live.

“Ashington as a community owes its very existence to mining. Although extraction of coal was the major dominant factor in their lives, miners and their families shared many interests, there was always a strong tradition of community life.

“People would often ask me, ‘Why are you photographing me? I’m not royalty’, and I would say, ‘you’re my royalty, you’re just as important’. I was photographing them for history really.”

The Coal Town Collection will open in May 2025, with an official date to be announced soon.