Last week I highlighted what turned out to be a very popular drone film by Danny Whittle that featured a section of The Brownhills Miner – whom many of us know as the Tin Man, Morris or Jigger – and it occurred to me that since he’s been in place for over a decade now, many Browhills residents aren’t old enough or have lived here long enough to know how he came to be.

There’s a really good video that I’ve featured above on his construction from the artist who created him, John McKenna. It’s been about a while but I’ve never got around to posting it here at all, so I thought I’d correct that.

Whilst I’ve expressed strong opinions about the way we came to have the sculpture, like the vast majority of the town, I do love him to bits. Image from my 365days journal.

John always seems to have called his sculpture The Brownhills Colossus, which is interesting considering the enduring debate over his name. There’s an excellent page on his website devoted to the miner, which you can read here, and a quote from it says:

The Brownhills Colossus

A 40 feet high approx 12m high stainless steel fabricated figure. Certainly an example of one of the largest figurative sculptures in the United Kingdom.

The sculpture was designed by John McKenna drawing upon extensive consultation with the local community of Brownhills.

This colossal sculpture was made entirely by John McKenna and his assistants at his studio in Turnberry, Scotland. John does not believe in sub contracting out artwork made in his name. Work sold as his ~ is his.

Whatever your view on the nomenclature or how he came to be, the Brownhills Miner is certainly a landmark and one we’re mostly all very proud of.

Whilst mooching about, I also found this drone footage of The Tin Man Island from last year, posted bon YouTube by Simon Regan:

The original Danny Whittle film of course is below, and has drawn much positive comment.

What do you think about our Brownhills Colossus? Please do comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers!