After the Miners' strike in 1984, it was announced that Brenkley Colliery would close in December 1985. Ashington followed in October 1986 and Bates Colliery at Blyth. When Whittle Colliery closed in 1987, this left only Ellington Colliery, the biggest undersea deep-shaft mine in the world. A way of British life disappeared forever when the Big E closed in 2005. The mines may have gone but many of the men who earned their living deep underground still remain. The author, Neil Taylor, has met and talked to some of those ex-miners and their families about what it was like to be part of such a close-knit group. Courageous and resourceful, miners had a unique brand of humour and a deep sense of community born from risking life and limb. Comradeship was everything and this was tested to the limit during the strike of 1984-85. Today, little trace of the collieries remains and it has become difficult to visualise the impact they had on the landscape and people of Northumberland in their heyday. In this book, the miners describe their early experiences of working in the local pits and their day-to-day life, with the ever-present threat of injury, death or disaster.
It is a tribute to their traditions and way of life.