I live in a village which until 2005 had faceworkers from nearby Ellington - the last deep pit in the NE to close.
Opposite me lives one of them - 3 weeks before it closed he was 5 miles out under the N. Sea when a tub broke loose and ran over him. He lost one leg, and nearly the other too.
He used to be a runner. It took him a year or so, but he's back driving now, and seeing to his grandchildren, with hardly a word of complaint.

The men said they could have pumped Ellington out in 3 shifts, but the water was used as an excuse to finish it.

Some have gone to NZ, some are "sunshine miners" working in the open casts, but most are "finished" as they put it. They've found other things to do, or not.

A radiologist friend in the local hospital said you never asked an injured miner to move to get X-rays: however hurt they were they would always try and move to help the staff rather than be lifted.

I saw the last bit of Brassed Off last night: I've watched it several times. I guess it didn't get into the big-time because of that magnificent speech at the end. Too political, too controversial.

Paws