Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
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"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
certainly a risky job
i was on the haulage for a year (tilmanstone)
not everyones cup of tea
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the very last job i would have ever considered, claustrophobic at the best of times.
absolutely no way i would survive long underground.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
iv neever been into hunting or shooting lesley
but know what you mean
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
The uniform shorts and shirts were nothing like my Dad used to wear at work
interesting to see a modern pit with all the safety procedures in place.
Audere est facere.
Guest 1033- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 509
Its only been a couple of years since four miners died just a few miles up the road from me near Pontardawe.
By all accounts our local mine was nothing like the one on the clip, and hadn't been visited by either the mining authority nor health and safety.
I can't begin to explain how this tragedy affects people, even an outsider like me, when you see whole communities rallying round. I know money doesn't compensate for the loss, but they raised £20,000 in 24 hours to help the families.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
Barrie that is what miners and other close knit communities do, they put aside any petty differences and rally round by helping each other however they can.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
Even at this up to date, safety conscious colliery, 3 men have died in 4 years.
No amount of safety precautions will wipe out deaths in our collieries or dust related disease that will kill our miners, yet they are still proud men and continue to do a job most other men would buckle to.
I don't think we will ever open a pit again in Kent but there would be many ex miners who would jump at the chance to be a working miner again.
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
Garyc your correct
i always recall the trainers at bettshanger telling us all that if you stay down the pit near pit head
then you are guarenteed to get the disease
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 652- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 595
My husband was a miner at Snowdon he died in 1979, but even after 34 years I am still looked after, a very close knit community something you do not see much of today
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
mining communities well known for it
seen many an example of that over the years
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
The forgotten mineworkers of the Garden of England
They once toiled underground in Kent but found themselves jobless after mining ended. Now the transformation of an old pit is bringing them hope
They are the forgotten workers of the Home Counties. For they spent their time not commuting in and out of London, but deep underground in the heart of rural Kent - once home to some of Britain's deepest and most dangerous coal mines.
Now, nearly 30 years on, the veteran coalminers are making an unlikely comeback. A makeshift hut in Deal, once home to the Betteshanger colliery, is the unofficial headquarters of a new environmental park that promises to bring jobs to the miners and a future for their families.
At its peak, the site employed more than 1,500 men from Scotland, Wales and the North-east of England. Many had walked or cycled to Deal from all over the country, transforming the once genteel seaside resort into a mining powerhouse that, together with Snowdown and Tilmanstone pits, saw Kent produce a million tons of coal a year.
But the onslaught of technology and changing governments meant that, by 1989, Betteshanger was closed - the last Kent colliery to do so. It left a generation of miners cut adrift and the lives of thousands of families changed forever.
While some managed to re-invent themselves as electricians or find work because of the Channel Tunnel, many simply languished, their employability stained by the reputation of militant activism and a unionised culture that jarred against the Tory leader Margaret Thatcher's drive for private enterprise.
The deprivation and mass unemployment decimated Deal and those scars remain. Many miners were left marooned in Kent, trapped in a cycle of poverty, malnutrition and blacklisted by communities.
"We were promised so many things but many have simply been a series of false dawns," laments Jim Davies, a 71-year-old former miner. "Projects have been announced in the past decade with enthusiasm, only to tail off or for us to never hear anything again."
That is until now. Next year the former Betteshanger pit will be transformed by a multimillion-pound scheme that intends to turn the area into a "green business park" with a research and education centre, as well as a visitor centre.
The project is masterminded by Hadlow College, a further education and higher education college, which says it can create up to 1,000 jobs, put miners back to work and equip them and their families with skills for the 21st century.
Where previous attempts to regenerate the area have fallen short, or simply been forgotten entirely, this time, those involved say, it will be different.
Much of the reason for that is the vision of Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, the director of finance and resources at Hadlow College, who cuts a figure of corporate defiance in stark contrast to the former men of the mines.
He has convinced the Government that a £40m investment is enough to put East Kent back on the map with a "global laboratory" that will bring together business, education, mining heritage, technology and rural tourism. Just over a quarter of the funds will come from the public sector, while £29m will come from businesses.
Gary Cox, 61, sees this as a new opportunity but admits it has been a challenge to ignite the enthusiasm of his former comrades - some of whom remain so disillusioned that they see this as striking a pact with the old enemy.
"You have to understand that, after we lost our collieries, we were hurt. We didn't just lose our jobs. We lost our communities and our bus routes. Our welfare clubs started struggling. The medical centres shut down." Because there was no pool of labour in rural Kent to staff its mines during the Twenties, its mine-owners hired men from all over the country. But their arrival horrified the locals. In Deal, where many of the miners lived, communities were shocked to find gangs of pitmen in hobnailed boots marching to and from work in the early hours.
Signs soon appeared in shops and bars saying "no miners", while former mineworker Jim Crews remembers a sign that advertised "miners' bacon", comprised of old scraps of meat and fish that had not been sold.
"It is almost exactly like European immigration into the UK now. I sometimes tell my friends, before you start hating foreigners for taking jobs, don't forget how we were treated. We didn't know what apartheid was, but we certainly learnt how it felt."
During the 1984-85 coal strike, many backed Arthur Scargill, and the "militancy" for which Kent became known then still rankles. But the miners feel that this, too, is an unfair representation. "We were not militant," says Cox.
"The idea that Scargill took us out to strike is totally wrong. We knew Thatcher wanted to shut our pits and we either came out or fought, or we simply let them take our livelihoods. All we were doing was looking after our colliery and looking out for our future."
The past is gone. But, should Hadlow College's vision amount to more than another empty promise, the future may finally see those who were consigned to history at the end of the last century recognised by the next.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
Goo article
and good luck to this project
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
A few mis-quotes(twists) in there, par for course.
The main one being that this Hadlow Project is not another empty promise, it is a reality and it will be benefitial to all our local communities.
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
A working pit supplying proper jobs and fuelling uk powers stations would have been better
The investment you speak of is linked to a conservative party trying to get re-elected in Dover-deal, so they can carry on privatising and enriching the rich.
The project is Welkom but don't be fooled by the reason for it.
This is my personnel opinion
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
KeithB
I am not fooled by anyone and everyone I work with, knows my feelings on the past, what we can and cannot talk about to make things happen.
If you think for one second that I would rather have a Museum at Betteshanger, over a working pit and thriving community, then you really do not know me.
Not one of our pits should have closed and they should all still be working but they are NOT, they are closed, they are the past.
I could get political with you at this point but it would be a waste of time, your stuck in the past( like a couple of others on here)
Negativity will get us knowhere, only by working together and taking positive steps forward, will we secure a better future for our communities.
That is what is needed now.
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Good Post Gary.
Roger
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
http://www.policespecials.com/forum/index.php/topic/143724-battle-of-orgreave-inquiry/
Quote
Scores of retired police officers are facing an investigation into their conduct at a notorious flashpoint during the miners' strike in the 1980s.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has spent more than a year carrying out a preliminary probe into the infamous 'Battle of Orgreave,' one of the ugliest confrontations during the bitter dispute. Last night police reacted furiously as speculation grew that the watchdog could soon announce a full-scale investigation - similar to the Hillsborough Inquiry - into claims police made up statements about Orgreave.
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
While I fully understand the feelings of injustice and resentment felt by the miners I am never sure if these kind of investigations are, to use that well known expression, 'in the public interest'.
Yes it might exonerate the miners much like the Hillsborough investigation cleared the fans but what has that really changed since the investigation, the much needed changes were put in place some time ago. For example as I understand it most of the police involved will have either retired or even died so little will really happened by way of punishment.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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