IN March 2002, miners surfaced from their final shift following the flooding of Scotland’s last deep mine at the Longannet complex. They brought the curtain down on a centuries-long historical saga. My new book tells the story of the end of Scottish coal mining. There were more than 100,000 workers in the coal sector alone at the industry’s peak employment during the early 1920s and still around 80,000 in the late 1950s. Whilst deindustrialisation was often a disorientating experience, in the Scottish case, it was not a sudden one. Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland tells the story of a profound economic change that unfolded over the course of a time period approximate to a human lifetime. Its pages span the second half of the 20th century into the present, as new shifts in energy sources and employment structures threaten the security of Scottish workers and communities.
WORTLEY HALL is a Georgian mansion now owned by the working-class movement.
Located between Sheffield and Barnsley in South Yorkshire and sitting in 26 acres of picturesque formal gardens and woodland, it has a rich history.
It was originally the ancestral home of the earls of Wharncliffe the lords of the manor of Wortley.
Wortley Hall was built from the wealth of the Wharncliffe family, derived primarily from coalmining in South Yorkshire, and generations of one family had enjoyed privilege at the expense of the many.
This era changed in a watershed meeting convened in May 1950.
The hall was in a semi-derelict condition following WWII when it had been occupied by the army.