Before my grandfather's generation, all my male relatives (and some female) and ancestors on the male side of my family were miners in the south-east Lancashire coalfields. My g-g-g-grandfather and all his brothers started pulling coal carts - "corves" - in the mines at the age of 10. If they survived, they became coal hewers. Using children of that age in mines became illegal in 1849 in the UK. My great-great-aunt Fanny Hurst lost her husband and the eldest sons in the 1910 pit disaster (explosion) at the Pretoria Pit, near Westhoughton. This was one of the worst mining disasters in Britain.

So mining is a hard, dirty and destructive industry with one winner - the pit owners. My thoughts to those in this latest tragedy.