By Tim McGuinness & Rahael Nichol

August 9, 2020 - England's North East mining and industrial heritage have shaped the region’s identity – influencing everything from attitudes, language, and even sense of humor.

In 1913 at the industry’s peak, the region’s collieries were producing roughly a quarter of the UK’s coal every year and were known across the world.

Almost every aspect of local life revolved around collieries, close-knit communities were made with their own social clubs and miners’ galas and towns like Seaham Harbour, Easington Village, Bedlington and Ashington owed their existence to coal.

The collieries influence even extends to our dialect, with pitmatic terms such as ‘marra’, ‘clarts’ and ‘hoy’ still infiltrating our everyday language to this day.

But the mining and industrial profession could be dangerous, with hundreds of innocent lives lost due to disasters such as the Montagu Pit Disaster, Scotswood, when 38 young men and boys tragically died due to flooding in a pit.

In early 1984, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced her plans to close 20 coal pits. After this, coupled with poor working conditions and bad pay, miners started to strike to shut down the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent colliery closures.

But Margaret Thatcher was victorious and hundreds of pits began to close, leaving thousands of men and boys unemployed and struggling.

While many of those mines cease to exist, their influence has not been forgotten. Our photographer has captured sculptures and monuments dedicated to the region's industrial heritage that we will be forever proud of.