Quote Cibaman="Cibaman"Pits have always closed, or scaled down, when the coal became too expensive to mine. My father and grandfather worked at a number of pits and moved about a fair bit. But they could usually find work somewhere. The problem with the 80's closure problem was that it was obvious that there wouldnt be jobs to be found elsewhere.'"
All of this is true ^^^
The area that I lived in during the 80s strike had been a mining area for 100 years or more, and before the nationalisation of the industry all of them were privately owned pits, often under-invested in order to scratch a living for the owners (anyone been to Lotherton Hall in Leeds to see how the owners scratched a living?).
The village I lived in had its pit closed in the early 60s and all around the area were former pit workings - by the 80s all of the mines had been amalgamated into one large one in Blyth and employees either left the industry (some gratefully, I never heard a retired pitman speak fondly of the job) or moved five miles up the road to the bigger pit.
Thats simply how it was, the closure program of the Thatcher era was unprecedented in its plan and swiftness and it was obvious that there would be nothing to replace the employment that it offered to those communities afterwards, which proved to be true, it would be eight years or more before EU money started to be invested into infrastructure and low or free rates offered to tempt businesses back into south yorkshire and northumberland.
Note the reference to EU money too...
