UK brass band keeps miners' legacy burning, 40 years after strike

LONDON - Memories of the UK's once-mighty mining industry are fading but 40 years after an epoch-defining strike, Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band still embodies the close ties that once bound the community. 

Miners at Frickley Colliery, in the Yorkshire town of South Elmsall in northern England, prided themselves on being "second to none" during the action against planned pit closures.

Very few broke the strike, which was once described as "the decisive social and economic confrontation of Britain's post-war era" that hastened the demise of heavy industry.

The mine, which employed 3,000 workers at its height, eventually succumbed and shut in 1993.

Pete Wordsworth, a miner from the age of 16 who was only in the job nine months when the strike began, said most miners had fared well since the closures. 

"People who've worked in a coal mine can go into that big wide world and they can put their hand to anything," he added. "They want to work, they want to work hard."  

However, the mines were the foundation of the regional economy, and without them, communities are still suffering economically.  

South Elmsall is still among the top 10 percent of England's most deprived neighbourhoods. 

But the brass band marches on -- consistently still ranking in the world's top 10 -- and keeps Frickley on the international map. 

The community's social life largely revolved around the mine -- including not only the band but local football club Frickley Athletic, which is still plying its trade four leagues below professional level. 

On Saturday the club marked the anniversary by wearing the same shirt as the team wore in 1984. On the back was written "The Miners United will never be defeated". 

Hundreds packed the club's 100-year-old main stand, which was decorated with a flag depicting firebrand union boss Arthur Scargill being arrested during the strike. 

But wounds opened during the miners' strike are not yet fully healed. 

Even the celebrated band came close to shutting during the strike, as financial hardship whittled its numbers down to just eight.

Its reputation for excellence was its saving grace, helping it to attract talented players from hours away with no links to the pit. 

They are now trumpeting the area's heritage and identity.