Coal was very important in the economic development of Britain. It was used as fuel in the factories built during the Industrial Revolution and continued to be important until the 1980s. The main coalfields are in north-east England, the north Midlands and the valleys of south Wales, especially the Rhondda Valley . Towns and villages grew around the collieries or pits (= coal mines), and their inhabitants were dependent on mining for their living. The towns were dominated by the pithead where the lifting machinery was, and by large black slag heaps (= piles of waste material).
Poor conditions and low pay led to a long history of industrial trouble and caused miners to play a leading role in the development of the trade union movement.
In 1913 Britain produced 292 million tons of coal and employed over a million miners. In 1947, when the mines were nationalized (= brought under government control), there were still about a 1 000 collieries and 700 000 miners. Increased use of North Sea oil and gas in the 1970s led to a lower demand for coal. Coal gas, once widely used for domestic heating and cooking, was replaced by natural gas. By the mid 1980s there were only 160 collieries and 200 000 miners. Fear of further job losses led to the long and violent miners’ strike of 1984–5, which is still widely remembered. In the 1990s there were more pit closures . Coal mining has now almost completely ended in south Wales. Mining communities throughout Britain have been much affected, with thousands of unemployed men struggling to find new jobs and local shops and businesses having to close. Collieries were returned to private ownership in 1994, and most coal now produced in Britain is sold to the electricity-generating industry. In 2003 just over 11 000 people were employed in mining.
Coal mining is also important in the US. In 1988 the US produced nearly a fifth of the world’s coal. Most is mined in the Appalachian Mountains . Modern mining techniques used in West Virginia have removed whole mountain tops and destroyed large areas of forest. Coal is used especially in the electricity-generating industry and in the manufacture of steel. In 2002 the US coal mining industry employed about 110 000 workers.