Just what became of Ellington’s redundant?
A year on from the closure of Ellington Colliery, more than half of the 375 pit workers made redundant are back in work.
It was January 26, 2005 when UK Coal’s Gerry Spindler announced: “Gentlemen, the pit is closed.”
Those five words confirmed the worst fears of those involved with the Big E and the wider community and brought the curtain down on 800 years of deep mining in the North.
Following the closure, around 352 workers from the pit approached Jobcentre Plus for help with retraining. Of those affected, 161 have been helped back to work by Jobcentre Plus and a further 14 are still employed by UK Coal. It is known that 70 are out of work and a further 107 cannot be accounted for.
Among those to retrain was Tony Willis, 50, who gained qualifications in care work and now has a full-time job at the day centre in his home village of Lynemouth.
He said: “I had to do something. I was too young to finish and I did not have the money to stop.
“I did not have many qualifications, but it was either this or security work and I did not fancy that. I started off on a voluntary basis last February but since then they have been able to get extra funding.
“But UK Coal should not have shut the pit, just look at the carry-on now with the energy crisis. We have just lost hundreds of millions of tonnes of coal, the same with the gas. It’s going to cost more to import than getting it from our own country.
“The Government has its new Energy Commission and they are going to find it would have been cheaper to renationalise the collieries.
“I think the decision to close was taken too soon. There are millions of tonnes of coal where they can get it. But they shut a colliery and drained the life out of the colliery, for what reason?”
Before the closure, Ellington was one of the leading producers of coal in the country and contributed in excess of three million tonnes of coal.
Fears were raised in December 2004 when 70 miners were given notice of redundancy which was confirmed weeks later.
The mine was pumping around 3,500 gallons of water a minute, mainly from abandoned workings, but on January 12 a new and heavy flow of water started and flooded its new working face.
UK Coal said it would not be cost-effective to drain the mine and, despite protests from miners’ union the NUM, announced it was to close.The land has since been earmarked for residential use and demolition of pit buildings and equipment is ongoing.
UK Coal’s spokesman, Stuart Oliver, said at the time it was closed, Ellington only had one million tonnes of coal left with a value of £3m, making it too expensive to save.
He added: “There is no one thing which has happened in the past 12 months which would have reversed the decision.NUM national chairman Ian Lavery said: “What happened has not got any easier to bear and I have not been back to the colliery since the day the closure was announced.
“I don’t envisage going back either because I have great memories of Ellington Colliery and the people who worked there, which I don’t want spoiled.”