Mining men

Featuring accounts from Ayrshire to the South Wales Valleys, each chapter offers a different perspective of the industry. Britain’s last deep coalmine closed in 2015, yet just 50 years ago the mining industry was a juggernaut, employing over 250,000 workers. Combining interviews with extensive archival research, the author illuminates the extraordinary history of the industry once considered the backbone of Britain. By situating the miners’ strike of 1984-85 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.