When coal exploration and preparation for production was taking place no production was taking place, but as production expanded, and new methods were introduced; most accessible resources were extracted and a young labour force was used for the production. over time.
Coal production peaked in the first half of the 20th Century, and was related to developments brought about by industry, mechanisation, and the war effort. Coal had fuelled the industrial revolution, and Britain as an industrial nation was "built" on coal. It first replaced wood and charcoal in the industrial processes of the 18th Century particularly at Coalbrookdale. During this time production had its maximum
production output with huge numbers of young people employed, and coal being extracted from the easiest to reach places meaning lower extraction costs.
However, as the more accessible resources were used up, new machinery was needed to reach the reserves, this caused prices to rise, and competition to increase, leading to declining production. Soon, unemployment rates are higher than employment rates and those left working in the mine are older. Young people continue to move out of the area, so much so that the retired population grows to exceed the amount of under 15yr olds, causing the death rate to exceed the birth rate. Meanwhile, the number of people employed in the service sector is ever increasing as people are searching for work in places other than the mine. The town of Maesteg in South Wales is an example of a mining town that has declined. It started as a new town to serve the nearby iron works in the 1820s but was soon dominated by the coal mining industry the town continued to grow until the 1920s when the demand for coal decreased. Then, as in the product cycle model, out migration began and jobs were lost in the mine. The rate of out migration was not as rapid as it would have been though as many found work at a nearby steel works and industrial estate. This other supply of work meant that out migration slowed and steadied and effectively turned Maesteg into a dormitory town. The closures of the mines meant that the heaps of spoil and wasteland produced by mining could be landscaped, in fact many of the valley sides were planted with conifers by the forestry commission.
There are many reasons for coal's demise in recent years. From the 1950s onwards there was a natural decline as coal reserves diminished, and the remainder became more difficult to work. This was followed by competition from nuclear power, cheaper oil and gas for coal's main market of electrical power generation. Most of the industrial processes using coal were also in decline. The Clean Air Act meant that both the domestic heating market and industry drastically changed, and the railways moved to diesel and electrically powered locomotives - mainly related to pollution concerns.
There was also a major political element to the fall of coal. The mining unions held incredible power, and could hold the country to ransom, as they did in the 1970s. The Conservative Party, later to become the Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher resolved to break all union power, and this meant the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Plans were put in place by the government over many years for this fight. For the NUM it was about jobs, livelihoods and communities. Mrs. Thatcher said it was pure economics. By 1985 the Government won the fight after a year of strikes and the pits started shutting immediately. There were 200 pits before the strike and around 12 today and 200,000 jobs before the strike, and around 8,000 today. In 10 years there will probably be no deep mines left in the UK.
It is true that some of the mines were not economical, but the government wanted to get rid of the NUM, and if that meant all the pits as well, then so be it. The economic argument didn't make sense because there is a much bigger picture than just whether a pit is profitable. There is a huge extended cost when the major source of employment, e.g. the pit, is gone e.g. social security benefits, crime, and drugs. In other coal producing countries, e.g. Germany, the uneconomic pits were subsidised to stay open because this was the cheapest and best option - and self- sufficiency in coal was retained. In this country we now rely on imports and a privatised industry, which obviously puts profit above all else.
Different mining communities were affected in different ways. A pit closure was always had its consequences, but up until the 1970s, there was usually another pit with jobs to offer close by. The bigger communities were usually a little better off because there was sometimes diversity in employment, and hopefully somewhere else to go if the pit shut. However, some communities, both small and large, were almost totally reliant on coal and coal related employment. This has led to real problems of unemployment, poverty, crime and drugs in these communities, and this is the true of the 1984/85 strike. Some communities are just disappearing, as the young people have to move away to find jobs. Even if the work at the pit was dirty and dangerous, it was a job, and it bonded communities.
Other aspects to this are that the UK is no longer self sufficient in energy - we have to import. Also the privatised coal companies make most money by opencast mining, which is basically quarrying coal from the exposed coalfield, and mostly on Green Field sites. This is very damaging environmentally, creates pollution and illness, and employs very few people for relatively short periods. Some of the former Green Fields are usually sold off to be built on. The most unfortunate aspect is that this activity is most closely associated with land around to the former coal communities - as if they haven't and aren't suffering enough/
Generally when a mine closes and that is the sole income for most of the people living in the area, the area becomes run down and derelict, as there is no money going into the town. However if there is an alternative source of employment, like in the town of Maesteg, the area may not decline so readily.
Another previous mining area that has decline is Ebbw Vale, however, unlike Maesteg, the Ebbw Vale area had few alternative places work. To try to stop the area declining and unemployment rates rising uncontrollably, the Welsh Development Agency set up a scheme to provide over 1000 jobs. It involved transforming the valley into a giant garden attracting 40,000 people a day. Another more recent example of this move to the tourist sector is the Eden project in St. Austell, Cornwall this has renovated a previously abandoned china clay pit into a tropical garden attracting 1000s of people per day. All of these alternative employment schemes made by local and national authorities are implemented to try to avoid an area going into the final stages of the product cycle model.
It is also likely as in many areas that re-industrialisation will take place with high-tech industries moving in and developing the derelict and un-used land. Enterprise Zones and Urban Development Corporations are likely to be created which will attract new businesses to the area.
In conclusion over time the employment structure in mining areas has greatly changed. At the peak of the coal mining period, mining was the major employer (primary industry), with little employment in manufacturing (secondary industry) and services (tertiary industry), then as tie when by the number employed in mining decreased as much as services increased, however manufacturing remained approximately the same. The declined areas are likely to be regenerated. However lessons have been learnt – today we must to become more dependant on renewable resources so as to help maintain our non-renewable resources. We must also learn not to become over dependant on one resource as any decline in the market can lead to disastrous consequences for the economy along with the population.
