Easington Colliery - Past, Present and Future

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Mon Feb 25, 2019 6:15 pm

Sadly life does not seem to have improved much since I last visited Easington a few years ago. I stumbled across this reportage from the local TV channel which is self explanatory (and now some months old). I echo the comments made about not ‘doing down’ Easington Colliery or its people. The community spirit is clearly alive and well. But, people need jobs.
Community's 'worst fears realised', 25 years after closure of last deep pit on Durham coalfield - Tom Sheldrick Education/Social Affairs, ITV Tyne Tees
https://www.facebook.com/itvnews/videos ... 447351015/
Text reproduced below https://bit.ly/2FZVmLn

“A very difficult place to live.”
“A ghost town.”
“Everything’s gone.”
Words from some of the people I’ve spoken to in Easington Colliery over the last few days. It’s 25 years since the village’s colliery became the last deep pit on the Durham coalfield to close. 1,500 miners lost their livelihoods - adding to thousands of others around the North East who had suffered the same fate. The signs of decay are clear. More than half of the shops in the main street are closed down. There used to be bank branches, and three cinemas here. Now it’s mainly takeaways, and two Boots pharmacies - I’m told that’s where many recovering drug users go to get methadone every day as part of their treatment. The former colliery houses surrounding the pit were sold off after it closed, in May 1993. Locals say many are owned by absentee landlords. We counted 61 now boarded up. Some have rubbish filling back courtyards, and notices from the police and council pinned to the front door, warning them to clean up. Two and three-bedroom terraced houses are on sale for just £30,000. The council has demolished some of the old streets because they were under-occupied, creating open spaces. But it doesn’t have the money to buy and clear more. We see teams of council workers clearing litter from gardens.

The old colliery site itself has been redeveloped, as a nature reserve, with a children’s play area. The coastline too has been cleared of coal spoil. The Healthworks building in the village, bringing together different care facilities, is another example of investment. But locals say most of the money has gone elsewhere, to places like Seaham. The current government told us that 16,000 affordable homes have been built in the North East, unemployment in the region has fallen by 48% since 2010, and its welfare reforms are helping people become better-off. People in Easington Colliery, though, talk instead about the closure, last year, of another significant employer - the Walkers crisps factory in Peterlee, and the recent introduction of Universal Credit meaning some claimants have had to go weeks without benefits. Things appear to be getting worse, in many ways, rather than better.

Alan Cummings is from the village, worked at the pit for 30 years, and continues to live here, and work supporting retired pitmen with Durham Miners’ Association. He told me: “It was our greatest fear when the pits closed that areas of deprivation would set in - and all our worst fears have been realised as such. This colliery village is on its knees.” – Alan Cummings, Durham Miners' Association

The number of food parcels given out here by charity the East Durham Trust continues to rise. There are high levels of joblessness, obesity and long-term illness - as well as prescriptions for painkillers and antidepressants. One young man who came to his door to ask why we were filming said he was off work with depression, but didn’t want to talk any more about it. It would be wrong to link any or every case of mental ill-health with living here, but these are common symptoms of post-industrial life. There will naturally always be sadness here, too, because of the deaths of 83 people after an underground explosion at Easington Colliery in May 1951. It’s not hard to find people who lost loved ones that day. It is perhaps less common to hear people speaking now of this village’s claim-to-fame, as the backdrop to Billy Elliot, filmed here at the turn of the millennium. It was set, of course, 15 years earlier, during the miners’ strike.
The name of the miners’ nemesis, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is still a curse here. There were celebrations, on the day of her funeral, five years ago. Colliery traditions live on here, such as a Monday afternoon social at the Leather Cap - the former mine officials club. We were welcomed in with our camera to see former pitmen sing. One even insisted on showing us - off camera - the miner’s lamp tattoo on his leg. There are also plenty of positive examples of community spirit here - and of local people supporting themselves and one another. At ‘the Welly’ - Easington Social Welfare Centre - there’s everything from tea dances to jobs clubs, and advice for victims of domestic violence. A local church charity also runs the CAFE Together project every Thursday, providing lunch for £1 thanks to a team of volunteers. There are dozens who come in for a hearty meal and to socialise. I do think it’s important to say this is not about ‘doing down’ Easington Colliery or its people, but rather highlighting what the vast majority of people tell me: that they feel they have been forgotten, and their village is in need of a lot more support. Where the village stands was still farmland until the mine shafts were sunk at the start of the twentieth century, and the houses were built for its workers. Easington Colliery is a true pit village, without a pit. That has of course been true for 25 years now. You could say, then, that this is a place stuck in the past, re-fighting old battles. I would suggest, instead, that, while proud of their history, people here are desperately trying to find a meaningful future.

NB - You may recall a donation of £60,000, made up of the proceeds of all tickets sold for the final performance of BETM in London, together with bucket collections held at the theatre throughout the show’s final week, was made to the East Durham Trust, handed over by the touring cast in 2016.

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Fri Jun 14, 2019 6:12 am

The recollections of generations of a mining family from Easington Colliery , The Northern Echo June 2019 - "....how in 1980, Billy Hogg was crushed against the ceiling by a wagon......... "I had to get him down, using a mell hammer against the steel girder...............”

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/histo ... eelbarrow/

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 10:06 am

As the distance in time between the 1984 strike and also the subsequent closure of all pits throughout the UK grows longer, memories refuse to die. Easington Colliery has held its first Miners’ Picnic on the site of the old colliery. The intention it seems is that this will become an annual event, and will ensure that future generations are aware of the mining heritage of the region and Easington in particular. The video [22mins] is just footage of the people of Easington and surrounds relaxing, enjoying the music, having a drink, coming together as families and socialising in warm, sunny weather - not a given for the north east even in summer ! At 22 minutes long there is quite a bit of “more of the same”. Quite something that the countryside has recovered and is back more or less to its natural state. Good luck to them.

Hartlepool Mail Newspaper https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/p ... nic-491653

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFJ6BbSHQ6U

Phone Snaps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B89X5GlQPRw

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:43 pm

A media company called Lonely Tower has been producing a series of short (just a few minutes each) documentary films about different aspects of the Durham coalfield. Here are three posted in the last week. Two relate to Easington Colliery, the other to Wheatley Hill Colliery (about 5 miles away). There is reference to a documentary film being released in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORAp5VngF4o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GCnAclj3Fw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmkaTkkOmqc

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Wed Feb 05, 2020 12:58 pm

A few more very short videos providing snippets of memories from those who lived and worked in the Durham coalfield. Wearmouth Colliery was about 10 miles from Easington Colliery. The memories remain vivid despite the passage of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uum6VAczdsc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYmx9H5oY7Y

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Tue Feb 18, 2020 10:44 am

Even long ago disasters are still remembered and commemorated. Stanley 15 miles and Haswell 4 miles from Easington. My great grandad was born and brought up his family in Haswell as well as working in the mine there - fortunately some years after this event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZI6MUvl6Nc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPX1J0rAbsk

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Sat Feb 22, 2020 10:59 am

Another short video of recollections

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCtF4FTPAcc

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Tue Mar 03, 2020 1:16 pm

The strike is broken .. "I don't think anyone realised the enormity of the defeat ....." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mHPv7syLBg

Another day, another disaster, another memorial service, another video. Generations of my family were christened, married and buried in this church (12 miles from Easington) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTh_Dv_nOk

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Thu Apr 02, 2020 3:25 pm

Solidarity in the face of a new threat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnG6Ki9LW_0

Real Geordie · Post by **Real Geordie** » Sat May 30, 2020 9:13 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THz1HiyiLR8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8B0bksIksI **

** The “bairns” verse references the Aberfan, Wales tragedy of 1966. A slag heap of coal waste slid following prolonged rainy conditions, engulfing the village school full of youngsters - 116 children and 28 adults were killed. Alex Glasgow, a local Tyneside songwriter and activist, wrote this song about the real price of coal.

Billy Elliot the Forum