LONDON (AFP) - A once-thriving coal mine in Yorkshire was closing down, leaving just nine deep coal mines in Britain, the pale remains of an industry that once employed a million people.
Miners were going underground at the Selby coalfield in North Yorkshire on Tuesday before the last of its pits, which are running at a huge deficit, is closed forever with the loss of 300 jobs.
Selby was a relatively modern "super pit", seen as the high-tech future of the industry when it began production in 1983, employing 3,500 miners at its peak.
However a combination of geological problems and declining coal prices led to the complex running up losses of 100 million pounds in three years.
In January 2002, UK Coal -- the private successor company to the country's formerly nationalised coal mining industry -- announced that Selby would gradually close.
When the coal industry was nationalised in 1947, around a million miners worked in 1,000 pits around the country.
However a combination of cheaper foreign energy sources and a move away from coal due to pollution concerns saw the industry gradually decline.
This process accelerated following a bitter year-long strike from March 1984 that failed to prevent former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher from closing down many of the pits.
10/26/2004 - 10:19 GMT - AFP