Miners going to the Pit : Memories

• As a Young child, seeing hundreds of men swarming out of Monkwearmouth pit, looking dirty and worn out. All for the sake of keeping the country warm and in production.
  Shocking the way they were treated in the Thatcher regime

  Moira miller

• My father's family lived in Mickley Square, Northumberland. My grandad was a pit deputy and all the male members of the family worked in the pits. Dad started work at the colliery at the age of 14 and soon realised it was a tough life so looked for an escape route which he found through enlisting with the RAF. By the 1960s the pits were starting to close and Mickley Square became a ghost village. As a Young visitor I remember clearly the strong community atmosphere of open doors and lots of extended family members and friends visiting at all times of the day. Sadly the rows of terrace houses were demolished during the 70s, though the extended house of my grandparents still stands on East Street. For those who remember, the spirit of all those miners' families lives on.

  Michael Hudson