Andy Boag Photographer

Woolley Colliery - Closed December 1987

The pit closed because they just didn’t want the coal did they? They wanted to get shut of us, they won the battle and they wanted to close the pits. So that’s what they did. There was that many people out of work, you couldn’t get a job, so I was signing on.

Seeing it as it is now, it would have been better if the pit had been left. It doesn’t bother me having these houses here. It was either a housing estate or they were talking about putting an industrial tip on it, and we didn’t want that so we settled for a housing estate.

After the strike was over, I had two brothers that went back to the pit because they wanted to finish - it was a good offer for them. They could finish and get good pay. They were in their fifties. I didn’t fall out with them over it, but people in the village that did go back to work… it was hard – a lot of vengeance among them. It’s getting better here, but in some areas, they’ll not talk to them anymore. They’ve got to live with it, it’s one of them things – done and dusted. It wasn’t the easiest twelve months I can tell you that.