15 March 2012
Have you ever noticed how short our memory is at times? We’re all the same really when it comes to this. It’s like there are certain events that I can remember blow by blow, memories I would sooner do without to be honest. Then we forget things that go on around us that our general memory still has stored away but which we don’t think about on a regular basis, if at all. This thinking has come about because the Dorktown News is celebrating its 25th birthday today.
Today’s issue is a lot larger than normal with it going back over the years that the paper has covered since it began publication. One of the biggest stories was when the manager of the Woolwich building society was kidnapped and killed and a large amount of cash was stolen from their offices. I certainly remember how big the story was around here and how I found myself fascinated by it. I bought all the local papers while it was on-going to read about it. Now I don’t think about it at all unless someone or something reminds me of it.
Today’s front page carries another big story and also brings back memories from even further back. First though, today’s story … Daw Mill colliery is threatened with closure. In the big scheme of things that hardly matters I suppose, but Daw Mill is the last deep mine in the UK and it see it close would be a shame. I was around though when it first opened.
At the time I live in Gun Hill, Arley with the rest of my family. Arley was a mining village at the time and had its own pit where most of the men from the village worked. I well remember my dad saying when Daw Mill opened that it wouldn’t be long before all the other local pits would close now that the new one was open.
The first one to go was Hunchwood pit in Galley Common. At the time it closed the NCB was spending a large amount of money on heading out a new face at Arley. None of the men from Hunchwood were made redundant though. The work force was divided into three groups; one went to Arley, one third to Newdigate in Bedworth and the final third to Coventry pit. The added man power at Arley meant the pit could make any money, and certainly less than it was before Hunchwood closed. Arley closed soon after with the men being transferred to other pits in the area.
Now of course they are all gone. The villages are still about but they are shadows of their former selves. But I wonder just how much of it is lucking back through rosy tints of child hood? But back to Daw Mill …
It wasn’t so long ago that the pit was making regular headlines for break coal production records. These reports seemed to appear every couple of months or so. Now they have hit a geological fault line that is reducing the amount of coal it can cut. The management have now tied the hands of the work force by saying they have until 2014 to make a profit or it will close – and ties their hand in trying to do so by refusing to allow them to head out a new face. Why don’t they be honest and close the place down now and be done with it. That is what they want to do anyway so why not do it?
Yesterday I mentioned using the bus service in London when I go down there. It seemed like a good idea at the time so I did get on the ‘net and have a look at it. There is plenty of scope for wheel chairs to get on and off the buses, but not for scooters. As I can’t stand for long let alone walk very far I’m back to square one with having to find parking places nearby where I want to visit. It also means that I am limited to times when I can go down too. And of course it’s not just me is it? Anyone using a scooter will have the same problem.
Todays photo had me serching through all my Flicker pages. For some reason when I moved my images from an XP machine to Vista machine it made chages to the image files and I can no longer open any of them. That is why I had go and find this one. It is of the Selfirdiges store in Brum. I had been looking for a different way shooting this building and when I saw the relection in a pool of water I knew I had found what I was looking for.
No comments:
Post a Comment