Wigan Album
Mining
2 CommentsPhoto: RON HUNT
Item #: 30593
I dont know how we all have managed with all those pits closing down
Mick. I often think of the speed of change when I look back at my own background Growing up in the 1950s nearly all of my male relatives (1 grandfather, 5 uncles and were miners or ex miners) Even my Dad (a Joiner) who swore he would never willingly go down the pit - his father had died at 35 from pneumoconiosis - actually worked in the mines when he came out of the Royal Navy after WW2 because there were no other jobs. All these men by the way were involved in "incidents" underground roof falls etc. Also my family was by no means uncommon in Wigan lots of my friends had family who were mostly pitmen. Ad yet by 1993 the last deep mine in all Lancashire closed. I', not going into whether this was good or bad or the reasons why - just pointing out that this scale and speed of change was massively disruptive and the effects are still going on. Its also true for other areas , possibly even more so. My daughter married a Welshman and lives in the valley at Pontypridd. Absolutely nothing has replaced those mining (and mining related) jobs. The people where she lives are lovely and ome of the friendliest I have ever met, but the soul of the place has been ripped out.