Memories of the Leicestershire Coalfields

The Life of a Coal Miner

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. Interviews and photographs give the reader a real insight into what life was like for a miner before, during and after the Miners' Strike. 

A way of life ended in Leicestershire when Bagworth Colliery, one of the oldest and longest running traditional deep mines in the country, closed in 1991. The mines may have gone but many of the men who earned their living deep underground still remain. The author, David Bell has met and talked to some of those ex-miners 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 in 1984-85 when only a handful of Leicestershire miners, known as the "Dirty Thirty", supported the call to strike.

A5 (softcover) 128 pages

Author: David Bell

ISBN 9781846740619