An 11-part history of Britain at work. 6: Cutting Coal
Coal had powered Britain's industrial rise. Her mills and furnaces, railways and steamships, depended on it. In the peak years a million men laboured in the mines, many in conditions like those Dick Martin found when he began as pit boy aged 14:
'I was scared stiff by the atmosphere in the pit, the conditions we were expected to work under, the stench, the darkness, and I cried my eyes out to my father and said "I don't want to go back there, Dad". "Well, it's a case you've got to," he said.'
Miners and managers tell of the poor conditions, insecurity and technical backwardness that helped the case for nationalisation in 1947. But the new NCB over-estimated the future need for coal. After the massive post-war modernisation programme, too much coal was being brought up, by too many miners. With the cutbacks came more conflict, which continues today.
Music by CARL DAVIS
Played by GRIMETHORPE colliery BAND Arranged by RAY FARR
Assistant producer NIKKI RENDLE Producer RUTH JACKSON
Executive producer PETER PAGNAMENTA