Thatcher has died

castle , the red queen , was it the colour of the hair or political stance ?

She sure jumped on the EU gravy train , after denoucing it , if memory serves correct

Don't they all.

Pogs,Pogs,Pogs.

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G>mum your message appears to have gone away.

No, I just hoped that a line could be drawn under this conversation

Nonu

I WAS TRAINING FOR UNDERGROUND WORK IN THE COAL MINE WHEN NEAR BY 83 MINERS WERE BLOWN UP AT EASINGTON COLLIERY COUNTY DURHAM, I WAS NOT QUITE 16. AT 16 I WAS PUTTING OFF A DUCKBILL MACHINE IN FIRST NORTH FIVE QUARTER SEAM MURTON COLLIERY. MY LITTLE PIT PONY WAS A TERRORIST IN DISGUISE, HE WOULD EAT MOST OF MY JACKET AS I LED HIM TO WORK. I UNDERSTOOD HIM, HE HAD REASON TO COMPLAIN, BUT THOSE FOLK WHO ARE AGAINST MARGRET THATCHER ARE STUPID, SHE SAVED HIS LIFE AND MINE AND THOUSANDS LIKE ME, YOUNG LADS HEADING FOR A LIFE OF COAL. MY MOTHER HELPED GET ME OUT OF THERE AND I JOINED THE RAF. 20 ODD YEARS LATER HAVING BECOME AN AIRCRAFT ENGINEER-WELL, I MADE IT TO THE TOP, I LEFT AND BUILD EXPERIMENTAL ENGINES FOR A COMPANY, --ARTHUR SCARGILLS GRAVE SHOULD BE ON TOP OF A PIT HEAP WHERE YOUNG CHILDREN LOOKED FOR COAL IN THE COLD BLEAK DAYS OF THE MINERS STRIKE AND ON TOP OF HIS GRAVE A URINAL WHERE ALL THOSE WHOSE FATHERS DARED TO DEFY THE UNION CAN KEEP THE BUGGERS GRAVE MOIST AND YOU COULD PUT TONY BEN BESIDE HIM. WHEN I TALKED TO MUM ABOUT THE PIT CLOSURES SHE SAID "WE WOMEN HAVE TRIED TO GET OUT CHILDREN OUT OF THOSE MINES FOR GENERATIONS, DON'T WORRY THEY WILL FIND SOMETHING" MY FATHER DIED HARDLY ABLE TO BREATH WITH COAL DUST ON HIS LUNGS. IT TOOK A WOMAN TO SAVE THE YOUNG MINERS, REGARDLESS OF WHY SHE DID IT.

I think that was a case of an accidental good outcome, from bad policy. Better policy would have been safe mining techniques.

As a trade unionist and Thatcher hater myself, I still hold Scargill in contempt, because he had no idea how to fight for the workers in modern times. His methods were outdated and counterproductive. He wanted to preserve the old ways, and pit village life, when miners just wanted better pay and conditions, and the chance to buy a decent home somewhere nice.

Having said that, there is NO WAY I would let any member of my family go down the pit!!

My husband was brought up by his grandparents, and his Gran arranged a pit job for him at 15. He went down once, told the bloke to take him back up top the minute he saw where he'd be working. The man obliged, and Terry walked away. He was scared of his tough old Gran, but more horrified of the thought of working down there!!

(He ended up in a mill, then as an apprentice painter and decorator, then went to art college, then joined the Navy!!)

Cannybairn your post moved me to tears. My grandad(s) both of them spent their life underground in Harton and Westoe collieries. Both suffered horribly with coal dust on their lungs. Here in Tyneside though , Arthur Scargill is still seen as some kind of hero who "stood up to the Iron Lady".

I am really interested in this information about the mines as it is a part of my family history I would like to know more about. My grandfather was a miner in South Shields (Harton Colliery rings a bell gillybob ) He joined the Army in 1915 (was it to get away from the pit?) but unfortunately was killed at the Battle of the Somme. My father was 4 at the time and on becoming14/15 took himself all the way to London to avoid a life of mining .He got a job as a chef in the Quality Inn in Leicester Square and that is how we came to be living in the South rather than South Shields.

Its a small world Gorki isn't it? One of my grandad's joined the army (second world war) to escape the dreaded pits. As a miner he would not have been called up but did so voluntarily as a means of escape. Sadly after the war he went straight back to where he came from and ended his working life in his early 50's suffering with chronic lung disease, but lived well into his 70's.

It certainly is,*Gillybob*. I must do some more research to find out exactly where the family were.My grandmother remarried and ended up in Boldon Colliery but Harton certainly rings a bell and earlier members of the family lived at Westoe (The Bramptons ) but I think they were mariners rather than miners.

Very probably Gorki. Where I live (right on the coast) there are still lots of mariners cottages and some very large houses once owned by Sea Captains and the likes. How interesting.