Andy Boag Photographer

Barrow Colliery - Closed 1985

Miners are a fantastic set of lads, you can’t beat the camaraderie. I’d go back if I was young enough. I really enjoyed it.

During the strike I had some good laughs and some bad times. I had a young family. It was very hard. I can remember going to town to get my snap voucher from the dole and going to the village hall for a bit of dinner. I supported the strike all the way through, and it was sad in a way because I think the lads deserved a lot more than they got. We were shot down in flames; the government were going to get their way, no ifs and buts about it. I can never see it happening again.

On the day we went back to work Mr. Scargill came with us. We came into work but we had some rest days left, so we signed in and came back out on the same day. Everything he said was right, and it call came true eventually.

When the pit closed everybody had to knuckle down. We gave it a good shot in ’84 -85, we knew nothing was going to come of it; they were going to shut them.