UK Coal to close Kellingley and Thoresby Collieries.

[Fly]

Sad news, around 2000 people to lose their jobs. 
http://www.itv.com/news/story/2014-04-02/uk-coal-to-close-kellingley-and-thoresby-colliery-pits/

Just for the record, I used to drive an train underground like the one in the picture in the above link.
One of the many many jobs I was qualified for in the pit 

[Old Cruser]

Sad that we are losing two more pits there can't be many left.
I went down a pit in my 20's, one of the scariest places anyone could work IMO.
We were taken to the coal face, no way could I have crawled and worked were those men were.
They earned every penny

[Fly]

They earned every penny

I won't repeat stuff that's been said and argued about by the miners and such for the last 30 years OC 
Yes it was a lousy, filthy, dangerous place to work, respect to those that did more than the 10 years I did.
I find it sad at times that those that pull the miners down had never been or seen the conditions we worked in 
A trainee once asked me where the toilets were, I nearly wet myself, there weren't any down there.

We were taken to the coal face, no way could I have crawled and worked were those men were.

Like wise no miner would have crawled 150yds off the coal face for a s***. He'd do it where he was. Hopefully he'd do it on a bag and throw it behind the machinery where nobody went. Not all miners were so toilet trained though, or just thought it funny to leave a log for someone to crawl through   

[Old Cruser]

Yuk!
That made me smile - toilets down a mine.
My dad did a stint down the pit, used to come back spitting black dust. He said his sarnies were dusty. Little wonder so many had chest problems.
I remember going down the pit shaft in the cage - it just dropped like a stone!
Then walking quite a distance with the wind blowing at us.
Mum always told my two brothers that she wouldn't let them go down when they were old enough to work and they didn't!!

[Gerty Gumdrop]

I'm sad to hear about the two pits.  I was at the D H Lawrence museum in Eastwood yesterday which explains all about pit life in Victorian times.  My grandad was at Arkwright Colliery for 45 years so I knew about pit life from close quarters, including where and how they went to the toilet!  My grandad told it in such a way that I used to cry laughing at the tales.

[Stuart]

The National Coalmining Museum up near Huddersfield somewhere is good. I remember Eric Morecambe's description of life as a Bevin Boy - "Every day we'd be sent down the mine in this cage. If we fell off the perch, everyone ran like mad."

[simondjuk]

Personally I don't think its a job I could do but there's something wrong if they can import coal cheaper than we can produce in this country.

[Pete]

That can be a bit of an illusion Simon, for two reasons. 1) I remember Thatch banging on about that when the truth was it was from a country where their government was subsidising the mining industry - if they took away the subsidy it would cost more than UK coal. 2) It could come from somewhere that the miners are paid £50 per month - not something I would wish upon UK miners.

[therealjr]

Nothing wrong with being paid £50 a month. As long as beer is 10p a pint and a house £5k!!