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Summary

UK coal production peaked in 1913, with an output of 292 million tons of coal from over 3,000 mines, while employment in coal mining peaked at 1.2 million in 1920.

Both coal output and employment in mining generally fell from this point onwards. The economic historian Barry Supple argued that post-1920, coal “never regained its pre-eminence among Britain’s exports” owing to greater levels of international competition in coal production, while the UK’s peacetime domestic demand “never recovered sufficiently to sustain the industry.”

The 1960s saw the first significant post-war programme of pit closures. Employment in coal mining fell from 607,000 in 1960 to 290,000 in 1970, as a result of falls in demand for coal owing to increased use of alternative energy sources, including oil, gas and nuclear power, as well as increased levels of mechanisation.

Output and employment continued to fall, a trend that increased following the miners’ strike of 1984/5, with employment in coal mining falling from 139,000 in 1984 to 7,000 in 1994.

The UK’s last three remaining deep cast mines all closed in 2015 – Hatfield in Yorkshire closed in June 2015, Thoresby in Nottinghamshire in July 2015, while Kellingley in Yorkshire closed in December 2015. The UK’s last opencast coalmine, Ffos-y-Fran in Merthyr Tydfil, closed in November 2023.

This debate pack provides background on six topics affecting coalfield communities and former miners:

  • Government support for coalfield communities
  • Health inequalities
  • Deprivation and child poverty
  • Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
  • Compensation for mining related illness
  • Mineworkers’ pensions

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