We all knew there was still coal in the seams and occasionally there were reports that some pits would be reopened. It just seemed to add to the misery somehow.
My husband’s pit closed in 1989 taking with it the community that surrounded it. The pit itself was filled in and demolished leaving only a concrete footprint to show that it had ever been there. By the end of the 1990’s the village had fallen into decline, large areas of it abandoned and left to fall derelict. According to reports at the time the only residents were hordes of rats. Today much of it has been redeveloped as a smart new housing estate with only a faint echo of the community it once was.
The same street around 1990 after the close of the pit. The spoil heap in the distance levelled and replanted