I was asked to "Support the Miners" many times during the big strike. My answer was usually to ask the person, what they used to heat their home. The usual answer was gas central heating - not a single one of them used solid fuel. Modern gas mains supply "Natural Gas" and a large proportion of electricity is produced by gas turbine, rubish recycling, wind farms, and nuclear power stations. it's difficult to see where there would be a market for coal these days.

When I was younger, most houses used coal fires as their main heating, Power Stations were nearly all coal-fired, and even the gas ("Town Gas") was produced from coal. My parents had a coal bunker which would be filled up in the autumn and then topped-up by regular coal deliveries - the shout of the deliverymen was quite a usual sound around the streets.

Perhaps it's a good thing that our remaining stocks of coal are being left untouched - we may need them when the oil and gas run out !