Eric Richardson

Dodworth Colliery - Closed 1987

What she did to communities in the Barnsley area... there’s no employment for our sons, or their sons. There’s no jobs in mine working. It was a travesty with only one person responsible, and that’s Thatcher.

There was Dodworth, Darfield, Woolley, North Gawber – it was devastating. Sons couldn’t follow on to mining and became unemployed. You go through Dodworth now - like any other mining community and it’s sparse, pubs and clubs closed down. It’s just devastating the effect that the closures have had.

We didn’t think we were making history; we just did what we had to do. It’ll never be matched again; it should never be allowed to happen again in any industry. A government can’t stand by and watch that, it should never be allowed again.

A lot of fond memories, a lot of sad memories. When I look at the companies that are here, the pay structures that they’ve got, most of these won’t have trade unions; they’ll be no trade union members… it hurts. They’ll never be a carry on on this estate like we had. It’ll never be the same again, it’s always sad to come and have a look.