The Mining Heritage

While I don't want to appear as though I am constantly moaning about the village I live in, but it does reflect, as a microcosm, many of the problems we as a society face. Yesterday when out walking in the woods I met an old chap that I have met before when he has been out for a walk. He uses a stick and is not steady on his pins, but as he is eighty eight I admire his determination to walk in the wood every day he can.

I made my way to the location where I was hoping to film Lesser spotted Woodpeckers fledging, and he followed me there. I had taken a folding stool and a flask so I gave him some coffee and let him sit down. As an outsider, I am very aware that my views on fossil fuels can upset some people, not least because this is a former mining village. Even though the mine closed forty three years ago, there are some who would leave you with the impression that the mine had only closed last week. So while this old chap was a miner, he does not have that rose tinted view of coal mining that prevails. Therefore it is perfectly possible to have a sensible conversation with him. Well as long as I take account for his deafness. I said as long as I take account for his deafness.

The last time we had met we had talked about the fact that Chopwell had been known as Little Moscow because of the communist influence in the local union and the mine. Now I have said before that the Consett Iron Company who owned the mine, were far from being perfect employers and treated the miners and the foundry workers like slaves. Therefore it is understandable that the community were militant about the poor conditions they had to work under. Also it is important to remember that all but a handful of the houses in the village were also owned by the Consett Iron Company, therefore the company were also the villagers landlords. Effectively giving the company absolute control over peoples lives. In effect anyone coming into conflict with the Consett Iron Company, even over housing repairs or the lack there of, could find themselves out of work and homeless in an instant. Thus I fully understand the militancy However, when the company disappeared and the mine and the Consett Steel Works was nationalised, that militancy continued.

The former miner told me of one incident where a strike was called and the “Pit Ponies” were left underground, unfed and thirsty. So a group had to fight (punch up fight) to get into the mine to care for the pit ponies. I told him that I had heard the story before, but I had been told that this was in the 1920s. But the incident he was talking about happened in the 1940s after the colliery was nationalised. This shocked me, but every time there was a strike at Chopwell pit, there was an attempt to damage the mine by trying to starve the horses to death.

This brutalisation of the people by the Consett Iron Company, made the men brutal and when the mine closed in 1966, it was these brutalised people who were unable (physiologically) to move on.

While I can understand that having any job can be better than having no job, the mine was always a highly dangerous place to work. The old miner said that there would not be a single household that did not have a relative that had not been killed or seriously injured in the mine. Even today there are people still affected by the lung diseases that kill old miners are still very visible. However here there appears to be a masochistic attitude towards the coal mines and even with the full knowledge that Climate change will destroy the planet, they would love to see the mines open and providing jobs.

Chopwell pit had to close as the mine flooded and the water in the mine was very acidic making mining impossible. With a Ph of 3.5 to 4 there is no way the mine ever could be reopened, but even this fact is ignored. It would be like trying to restart the reactor at Chernobyl.

Therefore there is a resentment that has festered for over forty years here. Add to this mix the proposal that Chopwell Wood would be sold off and an open cast mine and quarry dug, and the men mourning the mining heritage were resentful of the defeat of this. Even though had the open cast mine been dug, it would not have created local jobs nor would there have been any economic benefits to the village. As simply any jobs that would have been involved would be specialists shipped in.

The obvious loss of amenity of the Forest would have seriously harmed the community. But perhaps even more importantly would have been the environmental damage that this will have had. Steering away from the obvious, there are already places in the wood where the polluted water from the old mine workings is coming to the surface. By means of ponds and vegetation, similar to a lagoon and reed bed system, but natural, the aluminium salts that pollute this mine water are contained and neutralised. Yet if the sand and gravel that are in the ground and act as filters on the
polluted mine water were extracted, then the polluted mine water would effect and destroy the biodiversity over an area much greater than the thousand acers of the Wood.

This pollution would seep into the Derwent and hence into the River Tyne. That would mean that any economic benefits gained from felling the trees and from extracting the coal would be far outweighed by the pollution that releasing the contaminated water currently locked underground. That would cost many millions more to clean up over and above the money a few would have gained from extracting the Coal, Sand and Gravel.

While the details of the tensions between Jobs, Economics and the environment here are unique,
there are similar effects that are ignored until it is to late with most mining and industrial processes.

What I don't understand is why some want a much hated industry to return? When the Steel works was in operation at Consett, the whole area for miles surrounding the blast furnaces, was covered with red oxide dust. It got into peoples houses, women could not dry washing without it getting dirty. Also people suffered seriously from breathing problems right up until the Steel works closed in the 1980s.

It was not just the people that worked in industry who were effected by this as the farms were impacted by this too. Not just the humans as cattle and sheep suffered from lung problems too.

While I can understand that there is a need for jobs and employment, there is also to much rose tinted nostalgia for a past that was far from rosy. The social problems we have in society today that are caused by drugs, family breakup, poor education and the lack of opportunities will not be solved by returning to a time when people were little more than slaves.

Talking to the retired miner allowed me to understand why there are so many people in the North East that have such a narrow perspective on the range of opportunities open to them. With the only jobs being Mining or the Steel works, the range of skills learnt were very narrow. Geared towards the jobs in those industries. Equally anyone not seeking employment in heavy industry was seen as being odd, something I can relate to, and this stifled ambition. Add into the mix the bully boy tactics of the communist party members in the village and anyone seeking to better themselves was seen as betraying their working class roots.

So not only was there oppression from the Consett Iron Company who ran every aspect of peoples lives from the mine or steel works, but was also their Landlord but also ran and owned the shops in the village. But there was an effective self repression that said that only from working in Heavy Industry were the men considered men. Even when the Mines closed as dis the steel works this attitude persists.

As the North East had so many major employers, Mining, Shipbuilding, Heavy Engineering, there was a very narrow set of skills taught in the education system. Not only that people were discouraged from developing their thinking skills at the schools. The only opportunities for further education was via the unions or political parties and this was bias towards a mythical socialist utopia.

When the industrial base of this country collapsed and it became clear that communism was a failed repressive system, there were many that gave up. These people are the bedrock of the social problems as they do not have any real stake in society. Be that education, jobs or housing.

Even when I went to school my education was geared to an apprenticeship in the many furniture factories that were located in the area of London where I grew up. These days the education system is so targeted towards the so called knowledge economy, and an academic education that people that are not that academic are not provided with the craft skills education that is needed. Therefore we have to rely upon plumbers from Poland. And without the appropriate education for the people who are not academically talented there are not the jobs and hence not the housing opportunities.

Therefore a major part of the social problems are that the least privileged people are not respected and if they don't feel they get much respect they will not be willing or able to give respect to a wider society.

The only way of resolving societies and the worlds problems, is by moving forward. Respect for people and the environment has to become a top priority. To give an example often the young people from the village are made to feel excluded from the local wood by the middle class users of the forest. While some do drop litter, and a few do try and start fires, often it is a reaction to being made out as the scapegoats for all that happens in the wood. Yet I have found that treating them with respect often stops them from disrespecting the woods and the environment. All young people will do some under age drinking, but I find if I come across this if I ask them to take their litter home with them, they do. As simply it is the damage that the litter causes that upsets people most, as very few get that drunk that it is the drunkenness that causes the problem. I am not trying to say that its perfect, but frequently if the youngsters are given a bit of respect they reciprocate.

Personally I wish I had the money to buy some land as I can see many opportunities where some green collar jobs could be created locally that could benefit the jobless here in the village. That would help the local economy and the environment. But until I win the lottery, and I think I need to buy a ticket to do that, that will have to be a dream unfulfilled.

While I may be critical of some aspects of the way society and the economy is, often I can see ways that if communities worked together, they could improve. Personally I just want to make the world a better place for everyone.

As a foot note as the retired miner and I talked, I was keeping an eye on the woodpeckers nest and they did not fledge. But when I returned today they had and I missed it.