An award-winning documentary film produced by Russell Smith ARPS and Simon Hill HonFRPS, and edited by Huw Jones, records the memories of miners who worked some of the final shifts in the East Durham coalfield. Production of the film was supported by the Northern School of Art.

 

From 1899 to 1993, the collieries at Easington, Horden and Blackhall produced millions of tons of coal that powered British industry and heated homes across the country. But the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85 and the rapid deindustrialisation that followed left these communities devastated, with little meaningful plan for recovery. Through filmed interviews, the documentary captures the personal recollections of men who witnessed the final days of coal mining in the region and reflects on how the closures reshaped their lives, their work and their communities.

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Alongside the film, Simon shot a portrait project featuring fifteen of the former miners from the last shifts at Easington, Horden and Blackhall. Sponsors by MPB and Centrado, the project represent thousands of men whose labour defined these villages for more than a century.

 

Together, the documentary film and the photographic portraits form an urgent record of a generation whose experiences, if not documented now, risk being lost within a single lifetime.