end of an era

Kind of a big day in South Wales today, as the very last deep mine, Tower Colliery, closed forever some 13 years after being bought out by a worker's cooperative. They've shut down not because the mine wasn't making money, but because it is all mined out, and now there is more coal to bring up from that seam. Not bad for a pit the Tories closed saying it was 'unprofitable', and an amazing victory, really, for the workers who pooled their redundancy to keep it alive and successful all these years since.

It really is the end of an era. This country was so massively shaped by the coal industry over the last 200 years - I can't even begin to describe how much in a little post like this. But it's all over now.

end of an era

Kind of a big day in South Wales today, as the very last deep mine, Tower Colliery, closed forever some 13 years after being bought out by a worker's cooperative. They've shut down not because the mine wasn't making money, but because it is all mined out, and now there is more coal to bring up from that seam. Not bad for a pit the Tories closed saying it was 'unprofitable', and an amazing victory, really, for the workers who pooled their redundancy to keep it alive and successful all these years since.

It really is the end of an era. This country was so massively shaped by the coal industry over the last 200 years - I can't even begin to describe how much in a little post like this. But it's all over now.