Mining statue at Silverhill Wood on the former pit tip site – the highest point in Nottinghamshire. Source: Paul Fillingham, Thinkamigo

Legacies

What is the legacy of the coal mining industry?

Some former colliery sites have been landscaped and repurposed as parks and recreation areas. On other sites; shops, houses, business units and retail parks have been built.

Film archives, books and other research sources tell us about a once great and powerful industry but it is the individual stories of the people who lived through the era that really matter. Feelings still run high in the region and the socio-economic arguments for and against pit closures continue to be made – but what will future generations learn about the generations of mineworkers who helped define the culture of the East Midlands?

Former mineworker and historical entertainer, David Coleman in Eastwood in 2015 – birthplace of the novelist and miner’s son DH Lawrence. Source: David Amos

Wake for Kellingley Colliery the last deep coal mine in the United Kingdom which closed at the end of 2015. Source: Charlotte Graham

The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on a visit to Selby coalfield in the 1980s. Source: Collections of the National Coal Mining Museum for England

Clipstone headstocks and electric power pylons the early 1990s. Source: Mansfield Chad

Mining history books and DVD media 2018. Source: Paul Fillingham

Coleville Miners’ Gala 2018. Source: David Amos