Mining Men

This is the story of the last generation of British miners: fathers and sons, brothers and comrades, big hitters and broken men, strikers and scabs. Men for whom the masculine world of pit was all they had ever known, who reluctantly emerged into the daylight for the final time, and others who were happier to consign the dust and darkness to the past. It explores how these men felt when the pits were closed and what happened next, including former miners who became factory workers, detectives, driving instructors, counsellors, the local mayor and one who even ended up working on Fleet Street. Featuring accounts from Ayrshire to the South Wales Valleys, from the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire, to the Sunshine Corner Coalfields of Kent, each chapter offers a different perspective of the industry. Britains last deep coalmine closed in 2015, yet just fifty years ago the mining industry was a juggernaut, employing over 250,000 workers. Combining new personal interviews with extensive archival research, Emily P. Webber illuminates the extraordinary history of the industry once considered the backbone of Britain. By situating the miners strike of 198485 in a longer history of the coalfields, we can understand why miners and their families fought so hard against pit closures, and what happened after the pit wheels stopped turning. Vivid, evocative and richly alive with minute detail, Mining Men explores what the mining industry once meant to its workers and their communities, and what Britain lost when it was gone.