... daft perhaps but it's a sad day for me. What now for Durham Big Meeting ... "Today marks the end of an era, with the closure of one of England's last commercial coal mines. The Bradley Mine in County Durham has operated for almost 200 years. But now, after plans to expand the site failed, the open-cast pit that produces 150,000 tonnes of coal a year will close."
Same here Smug, when I saw the towers pulled down at my last mine Kellingley. I don't think any of the muppets in any of the governments realise that we are shutting down a valuable energy asset. Wtf!
Coal mines and shipyards, and the communities they nurtured, so familiar once, now all gone, a sad day as you say.
Used to do a fair bit of work down there. I worked for Hargreaves who had a fair bit invested in mining. They owned the last deep mine at Maltby. I was IT support for the coal 4 energy lot.
The Bradley mine is an open cast mine and has only been operating for a couple of years. Eden Colliery was a deep mine and operated across the road but that disappeared years and years ago. Not sure where the 200 years comes from? Unless it refers to the Eden. I suppose the Bradley mine has been just scraping up what the Eden left.
We worked with AMCO as our main contractors, but was aware of Hargreaves, the IT I had at my desk allowed me to monitor coal face machinery and hydraulic systems as well as diagnostics that gave me updates on production and heads up on potential breakdowns which was incredible considering when I started the control man was the first I heard of problems. Was a fascinating industry to work in.
Those communities were self policing to a great degree, that's lost and society is fragmenting. We'd get a clip off blokes in the village ... ... and our parents never once took one of them to court
Yeah I worked with a very clever guy who did all the monitoring of production via some clever systems. Had to google it but it was all the SCADA stuff which interfaces with PLCs. He was making a fortune out of the coal industry at the time as most mines used it.
An interesting story for you Smug, a dark part of our history https://leadgatevillage.com/the-history-of-leadgate-village/south-medomsley-colliery-strike/
Very sad day. I spent 15 years working for NCB/British Coal and my dad 40+ years before me. I recently joined these, only £2 a month, as a way of helping to support the ongoing future of Durham Big Meeting. https://www.friendsofdurhamminersgala.org/marras
Another one for you @Smug in Boots The "Battle of Blue Heaps" It's interesting for me because my 2 x Great Grandparents brought their family over from Ireland to Consett sometime between 1852 and 1861 and ended up working for the Iron Company as Iron Puddlers, they were probably involved in the battle. https://leadgatevillage.com/irish-e...text=an iron puddler at the Consett Ironworks.
These are going to all of my family and especially Dorothy, in Chopwell, who's our archivist. She's a truly wonderful human being and will love these. I thank you so much for these.
Speaking from personal experience the village police were pretty amazing too, had a brush in Chopwell once and the support I got there was exceptional, sadly cant say the same about their Sunderland counterparts, who have been just the opposite on a few occasions in the past. Like most things its about judgement and nothing can beat local knowledge, coupled with experience when it comes to decision making, the Government are illustrating this point perfectly at the moment imo.
My pleasure Smug, there is a host of history in our backyard mate. I have binned Facebook, but got all of my info from some of the great local history groups on there.
