“My name is Mary. I’m Katrina’s mother. I was born in 1947. One of my siblings was very much involved with the pits. He was a miner. I lived in Beighton that had coke ovens as well as the pit and the coke ovens were the things that made the smell because they burned off the coal.
When we had the miners’ strike, I was actually working in Sheffield. But I was on this side of Sheffield, supporting women into looking at different jobs and things like that. So, with the miners’ strike, I was involved in something called Open Door. I was looking after the children for the wives of the people who were on strike. I was involved first hand with those. It was a big upheaval. We were also involved as a family. We had a very small haulage business that carried bricks and stone, which is made from reconstituted brick. The miners’ strike had a real big knock-on effect up here because of the building industry. When the building industry stopped, our work went down to virtually nil. So, we had to look elsewhere for work, it was devastating at the time, and that went on for two decades.
Steelworks were a big thing as well as the mines. So, we were hit twice really with the miners in the area. I mean, in general for workers. There was only specialised steel that was manufactured. And the big ones had been struggling for a long, long time. And they employed loads and loads of people. Their closure had a similar impact of closing the pits because the other half of what people were doing was in the steelworks. And the steelworks were down here as well. I first started work at Samuel Osborne’s down at Half Way, which is just over the border [to Nottinghamshire]. And there was two lots of steelworks. They’ve all been taken over now. Well, the original steel, it was specialised steel has gone on that site where I worked. They’ve knocked it down and they’ve put different industry in. But that created a mushroom of very small industry. But it’s very specific and didn’t help a lot of the people who were only used to mining or steel.
I came out of that industry, and I was working on improving children’s outcomes in schools here and in Nottinghamshire and then after that – this might not sound as grand as what I hear when I say it – but we were involved in the first attempt at doing work life balance. And we laid the foundations for doing that and wrote policies and practice around work life balance, which has become almost the norm.
It was difficult to find work elsewhere and to retrain. But there were lots of things going up for retraining: that was a growth industry. But that gave people another identity, I think. I mean, all our friends either went into plumbing or they went to other places for the same occupation. So, it fractured the community. But then those people sort of got together and they had their own little community. But they were basically individual people, plumbers and electricians and stuff like that. I still think that today there is a big community around the mining area around here, but in some areas it has gone. The effect on the community cohesion itself was devastating – as were the effects of the strike. Families were supported by the community with union funds and whatnot. But there was a single man. And him and about 5 or 6 people, because they had no money at all to live, and the strike went on and on for months, went back to work. One of the first ones. They were all shunned. And within six months of them all going back to work and the capitulation of the strike, he was out of work because at the first little incident, that was it. They got rid of him. They couldn’t do it at the time until they got a really good excuse. And so, he was out of work. And he never worked since.
Community cohesion still plays a role. Dinnington is very much like what it is here, but I only lived there for a year. I’ve also lived quite a long time in Killamarsh, just down the road, which is distinctly different. Two pits closed down in Killamarsh. But it’s very much, should I say, individual? I was part of that community, but not tremendously. And I go back to the pits because the pits there were out of the village at High Moor. There’s few houses up there. And the other pit was up at Westthorpe which, similarly, is right on the edge of the village. Not like here, where the pit was central in the middle of Kiveton. So, although there is a community centre there, I don’t think people there feel the same sort of allegiance now to those pits. And there are more new, newer houses, I think with people living individual lives, should I say, and they commute in and out. And that’s also on the outer rim of North-East Derbyshire, so that everything goes off in like Chesterfield, Derby and further down. But I think Kiveton is different. Dinnington, I was only there a year, and I did start getting into things there, but it’s very much a mining community, and I wasn’t a part of it, you know. I moved out of there actually, after a year because I’m not part of the people in Dinnington, and I like to be in a social group. It is very strong that mining influence there and people have lived there for hundred years, their families and stuff like that. Coming to Kiveton is different. I mean, I purposely joined the History Group because I’m interested in history per se and thankfully Katrina was in Kiveton as well. So, I joined various groups which are based in the community centre next door. I think there is a stronger community link there and you’re just accepted because you got a different interest. You are included in everything that goes on.
The village has changed a lot. The community pubs really, miners’ welfare clubs and things like that, they’ve struggled to keep them open. Hair and beauty has carried on and we’ve got the co-op. There’s no big supermarket, nor are they near enough, if you’ve not got a car to get there. Also, here we have an ongoing train line, which comes from Sheffield through to Kiveton Park. That has drawn in people. I think a lot of people who wouldn’t necessarily have chosen Kiveton Park. That’s why it is slightly different from some of the other villages around, because you can get on the train here and go to Retford. And straight down to London. So, we’ve got a little mini commuter belt here. You can get into Sheffield really easily. And downtown [to Rotherham] as well. And Leeds. There are 450 news houses being built. And I think the houses themselves, that they are building are expensive. Considering the price of houses in Kiveton itself, you know. You’re talking another 100,000 on the top of what we’re already getting, and it’s not a very high wage area if you understand the meaning. Apart from the commuters that can come up on the trains. This puts more stress on the doctor’s surgery and the high school.”