The good old days.

[Chippy_Tea]

Apologies in advance for long post, but...

I may be about to beat it.

My granddad lived in a town called Shiney Row (see map) he was a coal miner back in the days when pit ponies pulled the carts through the tunnels, (i imagine around the same time as in the picture in post one) one day one of the ponies got into trouble and fell on its side trapping my grandfather between it and the wall of the mine and it kicked lumps out of him trying to get up, when they eventually got him on the mend they sent him to Conishead priory in Ulverston which was owned at the time by the Durham Miners Welfare Committee (used as a convalescent home by patients from the Durham coalfields) while there he started dating a nurse who he later married and they set up home in Ulverston. (where i still live)

When i was very young we went to their house for a holiday and i can remember going to the pit and watching the men come out looking like the guy in the picture in the first post and every house had a huge coal bunker in the yard similar to the ones in the picture below.
(notice how few cars are parked outside houses)

 

[DJDave]

I do a lot of family history research, have done for years. My family originate in the North East, in the region of Sedgefield. Few days ago was looking at a family in 1911 census in West Hartlepool, married 19 years a plumber, the couple had 12 children born alive since 1892. In 1911 only 4 were still alive. - Good Old Days? no thank you we don't know how lucky we are. Some of those children I can't even identify.

Reason I'm not from West Hartlepool, my grandfather died aged 45 of pneumonia in 1934 and my grandmother took the 5 children south to be with some of her side of the family.

 

[DavidHatton]

He's thinking, I just spent 12 hours on't coalface wit pick and can I buggery get mi kneef through this burnt meat.

 

[johncrobinson]

One of my uncles was awarded the MBE for rescuing his workmates.After escaping from the mine he went back down again and brought his workmates out.The incident was in all the papers with pictures showing him meeting the Queen and prime minister.

Towards the end of the mining period mining itself became very well paid if still a danger to life and limb job. To look at the state of fomer mining towns such as Ashington (pop 20k +) today is not just sad but in fact tragic.The best Ashington youngsters can look forward to today is a minimum wage unskilled job flipping burgers or such like OR moving away leaving family and friends behind forever.

Needless to say crime/drug use/anti social attitudes have rocketed as elseware due to the breakdown in social cohesion that once characterised these comunities.Despite all the half baked "regeneration" schemes they are now only gosts of their former selves despite effort and good works by the people.
The ongoing plight and state of Ashington was raised in the house of commons just this year.

I myself lived and worked in Ashington during the 1970s in a camera shop so i know what the town use to be like back in its heyday

 

[johncrobinson]

When in Ashington i lived in a house with a large greenhouse which housed a huge grapevine and THIS is where i made my first ever wine:> chat widdrington 1978.
Quite nice
Before that i just used help dad

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Bobby and Jack Charlton's dad was down the mine on his shift when England beat Portugal in 1966. My grandfather was a coal miner in the north Wales coalfield died at 63. My paternal great grandfather was a salt miner in Northwich and died in 1913 aged 81.

 

[johncrobinson]

Had a pint with jackie Charlton in middlsbourgh 75 or 76 i think it was.

 

[johncrobinson]

Yes Cheshire cat:>Coalmining was a dirty and danger ridden job the coal dust was not understood to be harmfull until towards the end.Many miners died a horrible death as a result.

The problem was all the mines and the heavy industrys were closed down WITHOUT any new well paid jobs to go to.!!
Quite a few aged over 30 yes thats right 30yrs old never ever worked again.
All that was offered if anything was offered was "retraining courses".
They were in effect treated like cannon fodder.

It has taken decades infact a whole working lifetime for many of these communities to even begin to "recover" some never did recover.Today even now most of the new jobs are semi skilled/unskilled ten a penny minimum wage efforts and pay nothing like what went before.With NO job security to boot.

The world changes thats a fact and no one can stop it doing so, But there is little doubt these closures were not well handled, Not well handled at all.