The sculpture comprises two massive triangular blocks of Dunhouse Buff sandstone, base-heavy and tapering in thickness, which sandwich a central Iroko hardwood column. The column is surmounted by a depiction of a pit wheel with a tiny figure of a miner standing before it. Beneath his feet, and running down the length of the timber, the coalmine's shaft is shown to the same scale as the figure, with the eight coal seams worked during the mine's long history crossing horizontally, their individual names and depths alongside, giving the viewer an inkling of just how far below ground these men worked. To the right side are five horizontal ceramic panels, inset into the stone's face, depicting (from top to bottom): testing for gas; filling the coal tubs; setting the pit props; hewing the coalface; pulling with a pony.