The Shadow of the Mine Coal and the End of Industrial Britain

The rise and fall of Britain's most important industry

No one personified the age of industry more than the miners. The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday - and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed.

Coal was central to the British economy, powering its factories and railways. It carried political weight, too. In the eighties the miners risked everything in a year-long strike against Thatcher's shutdowns. Defeat foretold the death of their industry. Tens of thousands were cast onto the labour market with a minimum amount of advice and support.

Yet British politics all of a sudden revolves around the coalfield constituencies that lent their votes to Boris Johnson's Conservatives in 2019. Even in the Welsh Valleys, where the 'red wall' still stands, support for the Labour Party has halved in a generation.
    
Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson draw on decades of research to chronicle these momentous changes through the words of the people who lived through them.

Huw Beynon is Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at Cardiff University and author of, among other things, Working for Ford, which has become a classic.

Ray Hudson is Professor of Geography at the University of Durham and a decorated member of the Royal Geographical Society. His books include Approaches to Economic Geography, winner of the Regional Studies Association Best Book Award 2017.