Lest We Forget - North Staffordshire Past

A personal tribute to North Staffordshire Miners and their families with personal accounts of their lives at the turn of the 20th Century. Also contains historic records of mining accidents and family names of pit disasters in North Staffordshire.

It can be no coincidence that for the second of his tributes to British miners and their Communities, author Fred Leigh chooses a title more often associated with the glorious deeds of those who fell in battle than with those who laboured on the battlefield of commerce.
'Lest We Forget' is a phrase to encapsulate the feelings of many who mourn the decline and fall of a once great industry and the countless families who supported it over generations. The sentiment also clearly describes the deep feelings of the author who laments the loss of lives, loss of livelihoods and the
disappearance of a way of life. Fred Leigh has a fine pen for detail and weaves the pathos
and despair of colliery disasters, disputes and deprivation with the humour, resilience and closeness of the families who lived in the shadows of the pits.
No-one will fail to be infuriated by the inhumanity of the coal masters who, not content with negligence resulting in the death of miners, then proceeded to turn their widows and children out of tied cottages to make way for replacement labour. But no - one also can fail to laugh at the eccentric characters who
populated the pit villages of Staffordshire or be moved by the unexpected gentleness so often shown by the oppressed to the unfortunate.
It is right not to forget; we should be both sad and grateful
for the end of an era.
Sean Dooley
Editor
Evening Sentinel
Aug-94

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