@ Tykeman
" those were mines which had either exhausted supply or were too difficult to get to what was there.
Talking of cheaper coal - because Eastern European coal was heavily subsidised, but British coal was higher quality. could burn at higher temps. Could even see the difference on our own coal fire at home when we had coal from our local pit versus from elsewhere. "
Have to agree to disagree. I grew up in the Durham Coalfield from 4 generations of miners on one side, and 2 generations of miners and 2 generations of steel workers on the other, I lived in a two up two down with an outside toilet, with no hot water just 150 yds from a steel foundry, and despite leaving the area for most of my career, I am back living within a mile of where I grew up. My family, and the families I grew up around had no nostalgia for these industries, they bent over backwards to try and ensure their children did not end up down the pit.
Until the 80's Durham from end to end was a mountain of colliery waste and pollution, and those mines you claim produced high quality coal included those on the Durham coast at places like Dawdon, which mined the coal under the North Sea, and could only be run in any economic sense by dumping all their waste onto the coast and into the sea, making the Durham coast one of the most polluted areas in the world.
The deep mining industry was run practically upto its demise with the same couldn't care less attitude to its environment that had been the case for 200 years. Here have a look at this video to jog your memory, because although inland it was certainly the same throughout the Yorkshire coalfield.
http://www.durhamheritagecoast.org/dhc/usp.nsf/pws/Durham+Heritage+Coast+-+Durham+Heritage+Coast+-+Videos+-+Turning+The+TideI'm accused of being nostalgic, by some who probably have no concept of the reality of mining and the environmental destruction caused by it. My mothers family worked in the Yorkshire coalfield around Wakefield, and despite being proud of their communities, they certainly weren't proud or happy to spend their working lives in the pit. This whole debate is nothing to do with mining, it is simply a relic of the class war.
The biggest mistake Thatcher made as with every government including all Labour governments, is that none of them have ever bothered to put in place the same sort of industrial strategy that has served Germany so well since 1945. We could be extracting coal now, but deep mining can't be done economically unless we return to dumping the waste. The north is slowly breaking out of its dependence of heavy industry, and it can't come soon enough for me.
