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BBC News
By Chris Robinson
image captionThe 12,000-tonne load will leave the Port of Tyne for Belgium on a vessel named Longwave
What is thought to be the last shipment of coal from the North East of England has left the River Tyne. Extracted in County Durham, the 12,000-tonne load, bound for Belgium, raises questions for those who once worked deep down the pits, and for the next generation looking to a cleaner future.
The fact that coal was still being exported from the Tyne came as something of a surprise to former colliery mechanic Billy Middleton.
Now aged 79, he started work when he was 15 at County Durham s Wheatley Hill Colliery, before moving on to Thornley and then nearby Easington.