Cornet player Sam Johnston, a member of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, stands in front of the former Barnsley Main Colliery pit head building in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, which has been retained for posterity.

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75 years ago this month the National Coal Board came into being, strengthening the traditional links between the mining industry and the brass band movement that lasted until 1987 when the industry returned to private hands.

At the time of nationalisation, the industry boasted over 950 pits as well as 140,000 homes and more than 200,000 acres of farmland, brick works, offices, steam engines, wagons, coke ovens and smokeless fuel plants. It was the employer of around 800,000 people — about 4% of the nation's workforce.

The last deep mine closed in the UK in 2015.

Photographer Lorne Campbell has taken a series of images that have been sent to various national news outlets and media sources which it is hoped will be published this weekend.

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To find out more about the link, go to: https://www.4barsrest.com/articles/2021/1950.asp

Picture: Lorne Campbell / Guzelian