End of deep coal mining in Britain

...Because the seam had in the past been worked, iirc old workings were used to store 'ordnance materials' When the Benbow munitions was built there. Afterwards a deeper pit was worked and an Incident occurred when water collected in old , higher workings broke through. The Later ROF factory more than likely sits atop numerous mine workings.

 

So in one post you rightly point out demand dropped through the floor, and then you complain that the mines closed leaving the workers unemployed....

What do you suggest the miners just keep digging coal out and just pile it up on the surface?

 

A large percentage of the regeneration has been EU funded, so that's gone down the toilet now.....

 

Indeed. Who makes the clothes that we are all wearing? Who assembles the computers and phones that we are using to access this site? It may not be 'filthy and dangerous', but it's certainly no vicar's tea party. But hey, all good, as long as it's not the Brits...

Well done for brilliantly pinpointing how astonishingly blinkered and self-absorbed the attitudes are of <i>one single species</i> out of the hundreds of thousands that abound on this planet of ours. Increasingly often there are times when I feel genuinely ashamed to be human.

 

I always thought that the Barnbow tank factory site was clear of any recorded mine workings but I have nothing to actually say that. There could well have been earlier unrecorded workings, always a concern where the coal seams are relatively shallow. Barnbow colliery itself wasn't particularly successful and only had a short life of six years. A lot of that time involved strikes and lock outs, as well. It wasn't very near the ROF factory, which isn't actually in Barnbow, and I doubt very much whether it would have worked coal that far away from the pit bottom in that time.
The munitions factory was further east, on Barnbow common and there were old coal pits there which could well have been used for storing shells. I really need to read up about all this as it is local history and I'm not well up on it.

 

Have you visited most of the North East, as soon as you leave the big cities, it's a derelict wasteland in places even now. Many ex miners I work with would go back tomorrow.
The other problem is any replacement jobs have been low paid and low skilled. Not an ideal replacement.

 

To say, that I have been shocked by the quantity of ex-industrial brownfield land in the Midlands and north of England, as a Scot, tells you everything you need to know. I know what industrial decline looks like first hand. I had no idea that the current political settlement in England was so bad. I thought the north south divide thing was a joke. I was very wrong.

 

You should watch the video I posted on this thread, illustrates it very graphically in 3 different locations. All over the country scenes like this have become this and it is not just mining, it is most British industries. Even when "regeneration" comes it often just isn't the same. The big factory closes and is replaced by fields/housing or a Sainsburys/McDonalds/Car dealership etc which offer few decent jobs. In the program the only place where 'like for like' has been replaced is the former Vickers aircraft factory, which today had become Honda manufacturing.

 

Maybe I'm putting two and two together to make five, The Barnbow munitions factory was partially dismantled and bricks were (re) dressed to line the shafts of the new pit so I figured they must be close
But whether the new ROF factory which became Vickers is close to that I'm not sure. Recall the new pit owners copped a bit of flak when their mine flooded for not doing a proper survey ..

 

I've asked someone who knows better than me and he has confirmed that there are known mine workings under the Barnbow site but, as it was in the pub, he couldn't say how much as he didn't have the plans available. He also confirmed that the site was not going to be opencasted so that will leave some good Beeston coal sterilised that could have found its way into a few fireboxes.
There's some info on Barnbow Colliery on the Barwick local history site http://www.barwickinelmethistoricalsociety.com

 

All quite true but there is nothing new in this, it has been happening on a large scale ever since the 1960's. It is no good moaning and hoping somebody (who ? ) will turn the clock back. It is not going to happen, nobody is going to start a huge factory employing thousands of people when they can use automated machinery to do the same job for half the price.
Instead of posting on here bemoaning a situation none of us can do anything about, how about you come up with some suggestions on where we go from here ? What skills do we need and how do we get them ? What new things can we produce and who will buy them ? Should we resurrect the idea of gradually reducing the working hours in a week so that both work and income can be spread more equitably amongst the population ? Have you any positive ideas at all ?

 

As I'm posting over breakfast and need to shower, feed the chickens & get to work, my opener will be that if we had the same income distribution as Germany the average worker/family (not sure which) would be £3000pa better off

 

Plus most of them clock off at 2pm apparently...

 

Well if you cant beat' em join'em... or not.

 

Interestingly - according to the excellent Penguin History of Wales which I was coincidentally reading last night - the famous South Wales export coal industry wasn't what created all those towns. They were created by the iron industry, whose heyday was in the 1810s, and which by the second half of the 19th Century was very much in decline as the local ores were worked out. The export coal industry was the second heavy industry to dominate the valleys, from the 1870s onwards.

Someone mentioned the Bristol coalfield earlier: from memory all of the pits in Bristol bar one were closed before Nationalisation, and the last only lasted until about 1950.

 

Isn't that the main social function of internet forums, to make people feel better by having an audience to have a good old moan at? (or share their opinions on what colour it should be painted)

Those that I deal with on a daily basis don't.

 

When I was in mining most miners clocked off at 1,15pm unless on overtime. Or back shifts.

 

What time did you start?

 

I'm told most Germans on the payroll are starting at 8am and finishing at 2pm daily.