Wearmouth pit - a 30th anniversary memory

  • last year
The Sunderland pit where the last shift clocked off on December 10, 1993
Transcript
00:00 Weermouth Colliery, a part of Sunderland history for 158 years.
00:06 But 30 years ago today, it all changed when the last shift clocked off.
00:12 Its closure marked the end of the Durham Coalfield, which had once boasted more than 300 mines.
00:18 At its height, it employed 165,000 people.
00:23 Weermouth Pit alone employed more than 2,000 in the years before its shutdown.
00:30 Its history stretches back to 1835 when it first began producing coal.
00:37 By 1914, 2,600 people worked there.
00:42 The pit was still a mainstay of Wearside employment in the 1950s, and a new tower winder was added.
00:50 By 1957, there were bright days when production records were set.
00:56 There were 1 million tonnes of coal lifted at Weermouth in 1987.
01:01 And the hard-working Wearsiders always had that summer treat to look forward to,
01:06 a day at the big meeting, such as this one in 1984.
01:11 The pit was a huge operation.
01:14 There were the men who went underground, the canteen workers, management,
01:19 all contributed to a slick operation.
01:23 But darker days lay ahead.
01:25 The threat of closures and unemployment led to the miners' strikes of 1984.
01:31 Hundreds turned up on the picket lines.
01:34 The end came in the early 1990s, and the last shift clocked off on December 10, 1993.
01:42 A year later, this was the scene.
01:46 Hundreds watched as the 200-foot-high De Schaaf Tower was demolished.
01:52 By 1995, there were hopes of a new future, but not for mining.
01:58 The site was being considered as the new home for Sunderland Football Club.
02:03 And by 1997, hordes of supporters would flock to the very place
02:10 where men once toiled hard for coal.
02:13 Weemouth Pit may be gone, it's never forgotten.

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