Sam Welburn Photography

On the 18th December 2015, the last working deep coal mine closed its doors for a final time, marking an end to not only extraction of coal at that site but the demise of the coal mining industry. Kellingley Colliery or known locally as ‘Big K’ in North Yorkshire, was distinct for its two head shaft winding towers and opened its doors to workers in April 1965, and at a time at it’s height employed over 2000 workers. At the time of its closure, there was only 451 workers remaining at Kellingley on the day of its closure on their final shift and the often remarked saying that coal mining is a ‘job for life’ proved inaccurate in this circumstance.

The legacy of the coal mining industry is brought upon its turbulent final thirty years that brought upon a period through the year long miners strike in 1985/86 through the tenure of PM Margaret Thatcher at that period of whom brandished the miners “the enemy within”. Whilst Kellingley survived, other pits were rapidly closing at an accelerated rate, Kellingley was to be final nail. Marked by media frenzy on its final day, television crews recorded the miners final moments of reentering the surface after being underground on their final shift, to which the documentary ‘The Last Miners’ produced by the BBC in 2016 focused on the workers and their families in preparation for the final moment.

The images in this book however, focuses upon the quieter moments of life around the surface of the pit, three weeks before it closed its doors. The photographs present the physical remnants of the workspace of the rare breed of men who toiled in harsh circumstances of a once demanding and physical job. A sense of loss is echoed through the landscape of the 58 hectare site along with the reminders to the past and the bitterness to how the story of coal mining came to an end at the doors of Kellingley Colliery.