Day 2 of our conference starts with @DrBCCurtis and his paper on Oral History of Work at Tower Colliery. Dr Curtis is using recordings of his interviews to talk about the experiences of tech advances in mining.
One interview describes the reaction in the community after the explosion at Tower on 13th April 1962:
'The village was silent.'
The interviews conducted by Dr Curtis talk about humour, trade unionism, community, women working around the pit and the role of the lodge. OH allows people from coal mining communities to have their own voice.
Wonderful to see so many familiar faces gathering for our end of project event!
'On Behalf of the People': Work, Community and Class in the British Coal Industry
Douglas Nicholls, general secretary of our project partner @GFTU1, begins our event with a reminder of how important education and trade union history is to the labour movement.
Now @ProfGildart: this project has tried to include a broader range of voices. Today we have lots of people - from ex-coal miners to professors - to reflect the diverse interest in coal mining history.