Coal Mining R.I.P.


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Kellingley colliery closes today that's the end of deep mined coal in the U.K.

A once mighty industry gone through short sightedness.

It's not just mining jobs that have gone but thousands of jobs in the supply chain (Brush, Dosco etc)

We still need coal foreign coal may seem cheaper but if all issues are taken into account it is not.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-35124077

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/18/kellingley-colliery-shabby-end-for-an-industry

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Typical shift, pack me snap, throw it in me snap bag, "see yer later Mam" Off out onto Kirke-White Street, get me a fag out of the packet, light it and cross Arkwright Street, ontowards Queens Drive,

I worked at Newstead and Annesley pits , 22 years in total. The job was hard and dangerous but it made you figure out any way to make it easier . The danger element taught you to be conscientious a

Strip away the sentiment and it was a wretched existence for men down the pit too. Pit closures were always going to happen. The way it happened was far too swift, it was far too brutal but it was in

Agreed,a sad day for an industry that made this country great, it fuelled the industrial revolution and put Britain ahead of the world

Rog

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I agree entirely. A crying shame. Thank you tree huggers for ruining a once mighty industry.

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The writing was on the wall decades before that. The Clean Air Act for instance.

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I didn't always agree with him, but, let's face it, Arthur Scargill predicted this 40 odd years ago. Never mind, wer'e now going to start fracking in our national parks, is this the way forward then?

Anyone been to the East Anglian coast recently, miles of wind turbines spoiling the view, built at great cost abroad and producing bugger all energy. More are planned affecting the fishing industry and the wildlife, walk along the beaches of Norfolk and find the dead guillemots and seals, killed by the chemicals they use to keep the turbine bases and oil rigs free of crustaceans.

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It's not totally tree huggers it's financial. We have trains taking coal to our power stations from Russia and the US because it's cheaper. The green brigade have certainly jumped on the bandwagon and I think Scargill would have had the whole country on it's knees, that was his MO. As an ETU shop steward I distrusted anything that came out of his mouth, our union used it's head, we worked to rule and hardly ever struck. It was obvious to me what the outcome would have been had he succeeded. We would all have been communist if he had his way.

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I agree to a degree Compo but you have to admit that all the crud we're pumping in to the atmosphere is causing havoc with the weather, like it or not. I notice from a few new US TV shows and films that the yanks seems to be getting on board. I see small European cars such as Renault, Citroën, Peugeot and Mini etc. as well as the Japanese and far east varieties. You would never have seen any of the European brands five years ago apart from the odd Renault 5 imported in to the US as 'Le Car'.

Slightly different to the Chrysler Cordoba I had in the 70's :unsure:

HtNqRWW.jpg

5½ litres of V8, automatic, air con etc.

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Steam raising coal is around $43 a ton and is falling in price due to over production, Chinese economy is slowing. Outcome is, Autralian mining companies are shutting their collieries, some are being put in care and maintenance.

The big coal mining companies this side of the pond are suffering from the low coal prices too, many coal mines closed down, some big producers are on care and maintenance, only the very large output coal mines with low workforces are operating, but how much longer can they keep producing??

A modern coal face costs many millions to install with equipment, takes a few years now to pay that investment off and when your workforce earns upwards of $80,000 a year and coal only fetches $43 or less a ton....Say's it all

The world is awash with cheap energy at the moment.

Big K just couldn't compete with collieries producing 6-8 million tons of coal from single faces with workforces of less than 300 people, just plain economics.

Had the NCB/BC been the operators of lets say 200 pits today, would you as the tax payers be willing to subsidize the industry??? Would have taken many millions of pounds every year to keep the industry running at a huge loss.

Even the operators of Big K stated they couldn't compete, the coal cost them well over $43 to just produce, not counting winding and transport costs to the customer.

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Some good points made here..may as well throw my 'apenny in,

I heard that the coal seams were getting deeper and the cost of extraction was becoming very high.

How true this was..I don't know,

I suppose fossil fuels must exhaust at some point.

All this aside, I lived in a mining area...as do other members- and saw the damage the whole strike and ending of mines caused.

Was I for the strike?..you bet my Bulldog shovel I was..I know my history, and have studied how the English worker has been shafted,since ..whenever!!

Ben Tillet and the dockers tanner got me first interested in unions and labour reform,and thanks to certain great people in our past..you are no longer fined a days wages for opening a window!!

I became a Union Rep in most of my posts and was a thorn in managements side...but not just so to antagonise.. free flowing exchange between office and shopfloor is imperative.. and makes for a healthy workplace.. and that's not from a manual, but from Dawson's almanac of hard knocks!!

I lived next door to a bloke who refused to strike..streets and estates were torn apart..in their stance. I had met Arthur some years before the big chop..and subsequently at Hucknall..honestly??.. i wouldn't trust him,a flat in the Barbican- and how much did he spend on interior alterations to his Rover??

All this aside,the coal miners in this country were facing a loss of a way of life that had existed for generations..and very little put in place to slow down the rug pulling Thatcher swine's!!

I worked in a strike centre on Chalfont Drive..and saw what was doled out to these proud men..piss-poor..packing air travel dinners into plastic trays.This was the beginning of the end!!

And I am serious, those spitting image puppets we all laughed at- are now the basis of all the moans on this site!!

The Jeremy Kyle generation started here,grandads, dads and kids not knowing work,handout,fat,bad teeth,Crocs,mobility scootering,benefit drenched folk..that, that govt bore those!!

Yes you can buy your council house,get rid of your front lawn and pop yer Chevette on it..now you're a homeowner, you keep yer trap shut!

Thinking about the backdrop of Britain in those days..and the poll tax..pretty much made me run to Ireland..Now the Witherspoon chavs and the erosion of Englishism is coming home to roost! The pot is running dry..that's the fossil fuel..that's being exhausted now...the social security system.. pensions etc getting the snip to pay for individuals from elsewhere.

R.I.P..the coal mines indeed!!

That was the last nail in the coffin of a country we all remember and romanticise about on this very site!!!

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That's not a 'apenny worth, it's more like a bloody fiver you greedy bu66er!

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Sorry Ian, that's very one sided, but each to their own.

I knew local miners who bought their own homes, not ex council I might add. Had decent foreign holidays or a large caravan on the drive or at the east coast. Out to restaurants once a week. Etc. Would they have got these by continually following Scargill with their noses up his backside like the Yorkshire Puddings did? Not a cat in hells chance!

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Well said ian, I agree with almost every thing you say. My brother was a striking miner and suffered great hardship.

#11 Ayupmeducks can I have some of that cheap energy.

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I posted this, this morning elsewhere. To those who don't understand the "jargon" "Magic Carpet" Conveyor belt. "haulage chain" the 22mm heavy chain the coal cutting machine used to haul it's way through a face. Heavy, under spring tension and deadly when it broke....It was replaced eventually by rack and pinion haulage.

"Shearer" was the coal cutting machine.

"AFC" was the face conveyor, used chains in a race with flights of heavy steel to haul the coal off the face.

"Convergence" is when the strata closes up, usually takes months to years to close a road up, but can happen in minutes on a working face..SCARY!!

"Manriders" like trains, the ones I was used to were rail mounted, either hauled by endless rope haulage, diesel or electric battery locomotives.

In a few years time, when you're asked "what was it like "dahn pit" How will you answer them??

It was dark, so dark that when your caplamp failed, it was as close to being blind without being blind.
Noisy, very noisy on the face when the shearer was cutting coal, and yet so quiet that the silence hurt when away from machinery.
Cramped and tiring after crawling up and down a low face, getting cramps in the legs in the worst possible positions.
Wet from continuous drippers from the roof, hot in humid faces, cold in over ventilated faces.
Long walks to and from the coal face through weighted roadways to and from the manriders.
The fear at the back of the mind from fire or convergence all shift.
A ride on the "magic carpet" when there was less chance of being caught by a senior mine official.
That damned haulage chain breaking on the face, broken flight chain on the AFC in 36 inch high faces, or a shearer motor changeout mid face.
Ripping lip, get under it pretty fast in case you get caught in a fall of rock.
That long walk back to pit bottom when the man rider broke down after a hell of a shift.
The sweet smell of haymaking coming down the shaft in Autumn, or fogs and smogs in winter.
That grand ride up the shaft at the end of the shift.
Then that most glorious thing we all loved at the end of a tough shift, a shower, a hot shower!!
Then to the canteen for a hot cup of NCB tea, and a few moments to sort the worlds problems out with a couple of mates, then home.

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My Grandad was a miner he worked at Clifton pit, but he passed away when I was very young, but moving to Hucknall I knew a lot of miner's Would you like to work down a mine ? I know I wouldn't.

Great Brittan---Gone -- Pit's, Railway's, Mini's, Boots(now owned by Germans) jagar, Verdonis, Viyellia, Rolls Royce? (not sure) Steel work's, Boat Builder's and many more what have we got left.

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Not much manufacturing left in Britain now, and we seem to be highly dependent on imports.

The coal situation is simply down to costs. Our coal is £43 a ton. Russian or Polish coal is £30 a ton.

It's sad that more couldn't be made of our own natural resources.

It simply lacks the will on the part of our government.

I actually think that coal still has a place in our power industry and I don't think that they will have eliminated it by 2020 as they claim.

More could be done to ensure 'clean-burn' as they have done at Ratcliffe. E.ON has fitted Flue Gas Desulphurisation and Catalytic Reduction technology to reduce emissions there - which is probably a good thing since it is one of the busiest and most important power stations in the country. No amount of wind farms can match the ability to generate 2,000 megawatts day and night whatever the weather!

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The lack of will has been due to various governments over the las fifty years.

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I started at Moorgreen then moved to Gedling Colliery.

I ware'nt really bothered about the conditions below ground but the main attraction for me was having a hot shower after every working day !

A St Anns lad with no bath or hot running water at home was a "no brainer" as they would say nowadays.

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