Tony Gillespie

Kilnhurst Colliery - Closed 1988

I left school at fifteen, came straight down here on the Friday for a job and started the following week. When I first started there as about fifteen or sixteen hundred men worked here. Eventually the colliery went down to three or four hundred men.

I was here for three strikes - 1972, ‘74 and ‘84. We were on strike before the main strike started over a local issue. Everybody just took it in their stride; we were just fighting for our jobs. It didn’t just affect the people that worked in the mines, but also people who were outside the industry. It was surprising how many people went under when the pit shut.

Seeing it now, I think this is just a waste of space. There’s no industry in the country now. There’s nothing for young people to go into now. I’m not saying we enjoyed coming to work, but at least we had a laugh when we got here.