I was honoured to be invited to speak at the commemoration of Shotton Pit, on the fiftieth anniversary of its closure.

The final shift at Shotton Colliery was not the demise of the mining industry. The men would move to other pits but Friday 1st September 1972 would forever change Shotton.

The sulphurous, volcanic ‘tip’ fuming and steaming, which dominated the skyline, would be replaced by new industry and business units, which are as diverse as a parachute centre, tyre and repair garage, and a wedding dress outlet. The last remaining colliery building is a car dealership, and there are the derelict ruins of the pit baths. The colliery rows that housed working miners have been replaced with new housing that is reshaping the village.

We proudly remember our past, from the pit wheel memorial remembering the industry that created the village, to the war memorial looking down Front Street, dedicated to those who gave their lives to protect our freedoms and liberty in the First and Second World Wars.

Shotton is a microcosm of Britain’s transformation. Coal from Shotton powered the industrial revolution, which created the wealth and prosperity for the nation. Before the creation of the welfare state, communities like Shotton had a proud tradition of self-reliance with socialised community provision, including socialised medicine, health care, pensioner housing and even funeral arrangements.

The Colliery, Union and Politics made our community, delivered positive changes in society by creating the working week, the weekend and public holidays, widened participation in education, and created the NHS. Pensions, social security and our rights were hard won, but as we know, are easily lost.

When the partnership between working people, organised labour, and labour politics is weakened and broken, we lose the gains we made. As we have seen in recent years, creeping privatisation has left us without a functioning public transport system, no control over energy and costs, and deindustrialisation destroyed jobs and reduced wages within our community. Without sufficient income, rising costs, and an inability to access places and services, small businesses, our high streets and communities cannot survive and function.

The anniversary of the closure of Shotton Pit was an opportunity to remember our past, consider the present, and fight for our future. Without work, industrial solidarity, and political action working people cannot succeed, the Labour movements cannot succeed and our communities will not succeed.

Grahame Morris MP for Easington, Speech: Fiftieth Anniversary Shotton Pit Closure

“We are here to remember the men and boys who worked Shotton Colliery during its 132 years.

From 1840 to 1972, the coal from our community powered the industrial revolution, fuelled the nation through two world wars, and was the foundation on which all of our country’s wealth and prosperity was built.

We owe our miners and coalfield community an immense debt of gratitude, which I am sad to say, is yet to be repaid.

Fifty years to the day, the cage lifted the last shift.

The coal seams we stand upon are the lifeblood of the community.

Without coal mining, the community as we know it would not have been built.

While Shotton can trace its roots back before the Norman invasion in 1066, the scene for nearly 1000 years was grass and farmland.

The pit created the village we see today, and it also broke it.

Despite early success, Shotton Colliery closed in 1877, and would remain so for 23 years. In that time, people had to leave the village to find work at other pits.

In 1900, the pit reopened triggering the rapid growth of the village, bringing back into life the cokeworks and brickworks.

By 1918, Shotton Colliery was extracting nearly half a million tons of coal annually, employing at its height over 2000 men and boys.

Coal mining was a hard and dangerous life, and Shotton Colliery was particularly notorious.

Unlike Easington and Seaham, there were no significant mining disasters, but during its time, Shotton Colliery would claim the lives of over 160 men and boys, some of whom are remembered on this memorial.

From John Finity, aged 10, a Wailer killed by an engine while crossing the lines, to William Bulmer, aged 72, a labourer, crushed between shunted coal waggons, the people of Shotton paid a high price for coal, through accidents, injuries and industrial diseases.

Shotton’s national notoriety can be traced to J.B Preistly’s 1934 book, English Journey, in which he described the infamous pit heap:

“This volcano was the notorious Shotton ‘tip’ literally a man-made smoking hill. From its peak ran a colossal aerial flight to the pithead far below… The ‘tip’ itself towered to the sky and its vast dark bulk, steaming and smoking at various levels, blotted out all the landscape at the back of the village”.

“The atmosphere was thickened with ashes and sulphuric fumes, like that of Pompeii …on the eve of its destruction…the whole village and everybody in it was buried in this thick reek.”.

“No doubt it was fortunate for England that you could dig down at Shotton and find coal. But it did not seem to have been very fortunate for Shotton.”

This is as true today as it was then.

The people who serve and sacrifice, work and create the nation’s wealth, do not fully reap the benefits.

Whether it is retired mineworkers, still fighting for pension justice, or families living with stagnating wages worrying about how they will manage this winter.

The wealth extracted from working people is still not being fairly distributed, with corporate pay and dividends rising, while people are pushed into poverty.

We need to renew the values that were forged in the heat and dangerous conditions of Shotton Colliery, solidarity, unity, and collective action.

It is only through collective action, and community endeavour that we can secure a better future for ourselves and our families.

These values are timeless and are the values that shape the best of our community today.

These are the values Shotton Miners put on their banner, which is proudly paraded at every Durham Miners Gala:

“Unity is Strength.”

And

“Workers of the World Unite”

With collective action, solidarity, and unity, there is nothing we cannot achieve.

I end by thanking those who made today possible, Stephen Maitland and the Community Hub, and the working people of Shotton, the men, women and boys who worked in the mine and those above ground who sustained our community.”