Andy Boag Photographer

Nostell Colliery - Closed 1987

I started in 1957 and finished in Christmas 1987, I was here thirty years. I was one of the last men out of Nostell pit. I stayed here to put the stoppings on and such like.

I was here during the strike, and I had two lads here at the same time. We came out with the union and we stopped out for a year, we never thought about going back. We went back under the banner. We thought we were doing the right thing, looking after the community. I did a bit of picketing here in the pit yard. What I used to do more than anything was to go on the old pit stacks looking for coal to keep warm. There was very little money coming into the house, and we stuck it out. Twelve months, simple as that.

It’s something, just to look round how barren it is here. I wouldn’t have wanted my grandkids down here. It wasn’t the greatest of places for your health, with dust, my breathing has suffered and a lot of lads have gone with dust complaints.

It would be something just to put something up so youngsters could see what it was really like.