Unearthing community identities at the National Coal Mining Museums of Great Britain

Abstract

During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, coal was paramount to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, with the country as the greatest producer and exporter of the resource. Encompassing the extraction, processing, and transportation of coal, mines and associated infrastructure were found across the island. From the 1960s, coal mines were closed throughout the country due to shifting energy demands and political priorities, with the last underground mine shuttered in 2015. National coal mining museums in England, Scotland, and Wales tell the stories of the workers and the wider societies that revolved around the industry, serving as a vital repository of place memory. This chapter explores the representation of coal mining impacts on communities as presented across the interpretive content of these national museums. Similarities and differences in discussions of union activity, socioeconomic impacts, and tragedies are considered.