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#843 Melvyn Life & Death in a Mining Community

Melvyn

My father originated from Durham. He came down here in 54. To look for work. As mines in Durham had closed. The land round here were mainly collieries. There were five of them. I were one of five children. The estate where we lived were built mainly for colliery workers. There were people from Durham, Wales, Scottish, Irish. From the south. All different nationalities on one small estate. My brother was the last miner to get killed in a pit in West Yorkshire, at Allerton Bywater. In 1991.


Precis

The speaker's father moved from Durham to an estate built for colliery workers, where people from different nationalities lived, and the speaker's brother was the last miner to be killed in a West Yorkshire pit in 1991.