My father, Jim Ford, who has died 82, worked in the coalmines of Shropshire for 40 years. Coal has been mined in the county since medieval times. Jim started at Kemberton colliery in Madeley in 1955, and later worked at Granville colliery and Lea Hall colliery – all three have now closed.
Jim was heavily involved in his union, the NUM, and was on strike in 1972 and 1974. During the miners’ strike of 1984-85, he was out for the year and he served as the treasurer of the Shropshire striking miners’ fund.
He was born near Shifnal, Shropshire, during wartime, at the height of the Battle of Britain. His mother, Thurza (nee Abrahams), worked as a farm hand. His father, Edgar Ford, having survived the first world war, became a career soldier. Shifnal was close to RAF Cosford and as a small boy Jim saw Italian prisoners of war arriving at Cosford and GIs gathering as D-day approached.
Jim was a brilliant football player for Shifnal Town FC, including the year they won the county amateur league and cup. But there was no money in football and so at 15 he left school and began working in the local coalmines on the face. He was a fan of Manchester United and the Busby Babes, travelling to see them play often and was devastated by the Munich air crash in 1957.
He met Margaret Lane at a local dance in 1960 and they married in 1964. Before and after bringing up their five children, Margaret worked in a local grocer’s shop.
Later, during the strike, when my father was the treasurer of the local striking miners’ fund, my mother was active in the wives’ group, collecting food, raising money and delivering food parcels for striking families. Both my parents spoke at events to support the miners attended by politicians such as Tony Benn and Dennis Skinner, and the NUM president, Arthur Scargill. Benn praised my mother’s courage and determination in his speech that followed hers.
With the decline of mining in the East Shropshire coalfield, it was obvious to my father that coal had no future and he retired in 1995. He took up painting, and spent time supporting his family, and community, often speaking at schools about coalmining in Shropshire. He was a real Shropshire lad. He loved a pint, his football and walking his dog.
In retirement he travelled with Mum to the US, around Europe, and to his beloved Wales (where his mother’s family had their roots) and the West Country.
Margaret died in 2021. Jim is survived by his children – my sister, Karen, brothers, Michael, Richard and Steven, and me – and 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
