Horden Pit
Two miles south from Easington Colliery in Country Durham is Horden. Just another East Durham pit village. It's still there, in name. Changed beyond recognition... not particularly its layout and environs, but it's people.... and that goes for almost all of the east Durham pit villages.
Sometimes when I think of the people I grew up around, the community and its characters I can hardly believe it's all gone.
"The profit's too small for the black suited boys"
So, I found a documentary on the closure of Horden Pit in the mid 1980's. It gives a fairly good insight into what was lost...... and there was a lot to loose.
It's in 4 parts, the quality isn't too great and will probably only interest the northern contingent of this blog....... Here's the first part, other parts will be links under the video player.
"The profit's too small for the black suited boys"
So, I found a documentary on the closure of Horden Pit in the mid 1980's. It gives a fairly good insight into what was lost...... and there was a lot to loose.
It's in 4 parts, the quality isn't too great and will probably only interest the northern contingent of this blog....... Here's the first part, other parts will be links under the video player.
Click here for Part 3
Click here for Part 4
7 comments:
R.I.P
Blackhall 1982 (No Scabs in blackhall)
Horden 1986
Dawdon 1991
Murton 1992
Wearmouth 1992
Westoe 1992
Easington 1993
Ellington 2006
All gone along with the pride we loved so well, as a sub contractor for 2 years I had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with these colourful and now extinct folk, I am the last of a generation, ashamed of what I am, Proud of what I was......Goober.
Thats a lot.... and whats even worst, I barely even knew it was all going on at the time... Being a miner was a nasty job... but it was a kind of glue that held a community together. Like it says in the documentary... the miners invented welfare... and from their own wages
When your environment is against you, solidarity, community and pride are born.
It's the same story around these parts... our mining industry fell apart in similar fashion, our manufacturing sector went long before that and now the only thing we had left (the forest industry) is in the process of doing much the same. Mills are shutting down at an alarming rate in towns that have depended on them for living wages for a hundred years. We have mass emigration to the oil patch in Alberta and while quite a few people return between contracts, more and more are staying away. It breaks my heart, but who can blame them? People have to make a living. The government is always prattling on about adapting to the times and innovating, but things just seem to get worse every year. All the while, the rest of the country looks at us like a bunch of ignorant, funny-talking hicks who are little more than drunken leeches on the welfare state. I love the Maritimes and can't imagine living anywhere else... this place is embedded in the fabric of my soul, but one can only take so much.
So, in short, I feel your pain. :)
As an addendum, just this week, it came out that Irving (the biggest company in the province -- some say the only company in the province) is in the process of, essentially, blackmailing the provincial government for lower electricity rates (when they already pay far less than the average business or residential customer) or they're going to move a paper mill which employs 400 people from my hometown to Quebec. Now, this mill is hardly the backbone of Saint John's economy (what with one of the biggest oil refineries in the world sitting adjacent to it), but the whole thing is putting a rather bad taste in everyone's mouths.
As part of the Northern Contingent I'll look forward to watching this.
You and Goober should also check out:
http://www.amber-online.com/exhibitions/easington-a-mining-village
and
http://www.amber-online.com/exhibitions/easington-august-1984
In fact the whole of Amber on line is good - go to photographs and do a search for strike.
Ian T.
You can achieve happiness by knowing the Law of Happiness. To view the law visit :
http://www.lawofhappiness.blogspot.com/
Law of Happiness
I was born and lived in Horden and later Peterlee until I went off to University aged 18. I’m now 33 and still return regularly to visit my family. I rarely make any kind of comment on things on the web but wanted to thank you for being able to watch the films on Horden via your blog, I have been moved to tears.
I knew the first 2 men 2 speak on the part 1 film. Septamus "Seppy" and then Moses "Mosey" Kirkup. Seppy was a wonderful man who used to train the St John Ambulance brigade cadets in the village with his daughter Elsie (Harris). They were 2 very important influences in my life and that training and experience of team working led me to a career in the treatment of cancer. Now I train students to be the health professionals of the future at Sheffield Hallam University. I also saw the streets where my grandparents lived and of course the pit where both granddad’s worked and saw Horden as it used to be...with life...all be it a little more grey with coal smoke! My Mam (mum for those of you in the south!) used to work in Kilburns store when she was younger too I can't wait to show her this! We still attend St Marys Church, I was baptised and had my first Holy Communion there with the vicar on the film Father Alan Bowser who now lives in Easington. If you're looking for community why not give the church a try?
As I grow older and see the changes in the village I do think the loss of community was very much due to the loss of the mine, but I guess only part of that socialism of my background stuck to me; because I do agree that things can't go on forever without profits being generated. However I the true death of the village, and those like it, was due to nothing ever coming to replace the mine, no jobs, no investment and finally the change in the community brought about by policies of social housing. But please don’t write the place off, it only takes a few good people to keep things going, we must remember and cherish the good things about the past but must look forward and stop just blaming everything on 1 event, I do believe there is a chance for community again. So thanks again and trust me the people are still the most friendly I’ve ever come across in any of the places I’ve lived in the last 15 years I may yet be back!
Sarah
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