Will... it seems I may have inadvertently and ignorantly been quite sexist in this thread. I knew that women worked at the mines - some doing really hard - but I had no idea at all they actually went DOWN the mines. For some reason in my head I had imagined they would never be allowed down the mine in later years at least (though we had no compunction of sending children down earlier in our history). Now we have women at the front line too. You opned my eyes to a piece of herstory I had no idea about. Thanks. For some reason the Lancashire coalpit regeneration areas seem to have faired far better than some of the Yorkshire/Nottinghamshire and Welsh ones ones. Maybe because they were spread in a smaller space. Perhaps because Lancashire had other heavy industries close by that survived better? I have no idea. Maybe it's my imagination. Pain is pain in any county

Jeddy.. great poem!

Keep the comments and memories coming. I am glad I was not alone in feeling as I did about the whole thing last evening

mp