Still, as successive governments continue to bicker over policy and the working man sees his rights diminish in the face of economic forces, maybe it’s easier to believe Trade Unions still have an important role to play in society. Though this is not the 1970’s and we are no longer naïve, a million voices shouting still need a few with the clarity and resonance to be heard.
Pleasley village in its heyday, a vast complex of terrace houses
The world moves on and change happens whether we like it or not.
The people of the mining communities have carried on with their lives, rebuilding a future from the redeveloped remains. Enough years have passed to almost forget the lost Heritage, but they are forever reminded by half buried pit wheels bearing the name of the pits they used to belong to and coal wagons filled with summer flowers decorating the road sides. In many respects the cloistered, protective attitude of community hasn’t gone, though many of the houses they lived in are being demolished. Nottinghamshire miners’ will always be Nottinghamshire miners, at least on my neck of the woods and while my generation is still alive.