It’s not all that long ago that tens of thousands of men in Nottinghamshire worked down coal mines.
It contributed not just to people’s pay packets, but also to an identity, a proud way of life which is now no longer with us.
Just a few years after the last of the pits closed, there’s now almost no visible trace of the once-colossal infrastructure which once supported the industry.
We’ve taken a look at what was there before, and what there is now on the sites of the county’s biggest former coal mines.
Babbington Colliery, Cinderhill
From the sooty fuel of years gone by to the clean travel of today, the Cinderhill Colliery as it was also known is now home to the Phoenix Park tram depot.
Having opened in 1841, it is still seen as the first large-scale coal mine in the UK, and closed in 1986.
It was once linked to the national railway network by the Cinderhill Colliery Railway, which is still partly in use by the trams.
Part of the old site is now also used as an industrial park.
Bevercotes Colliery, near Ollerton
Opening in 1954, this mid-Notts mine is considered one of the first fully-automoated mines in the country.
Like most collieries, it didn’t escape the political wrangling of the 80s.
One of its sons, Chris Butcher, gained fame (or infamy, depending on your point of view) as ‘Silver Birch’.
He travelled the country, backed by businessmen and the Daily Mail, organising groups of miners ready to return to work.
Perhaps inspired by Silver Birch - who was nicknamed ‘Dutch Elm’ in Yorkshire - Bevercotes voted to leave the National Union of Minors (NUM) in favour of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers in 1985, like so many others in Notts.
After the pit closed in 1993, the colliery is now a much quieter place, having been reclaimed and turned into a nature reserve.
Bilsthorpe Colliery
Now a fledgling business park near Sherwood Pines, Bilsthorpe was a productive - but deadly - coal mine, until it closed in 1997.
In its seventy years, a total of 77 people died in the pit, with the latest tragedy happening in 1993, when a roof collapsed killing three men.
In 2011, a memorial to those who died was unveiled - an eight-foot sandstone Davy lamp, inscribed with the names of 76 men and one woman who were killed.
Brinsley Colliery
Right on the border with Derbyshire, Brinsley might have been one of the first to close, but certainly has one of the best claims to fame.
It’s now a picnic site and conservation area next to the A608, with the restored headstocks still preserved more-or-less where the originally were.
The world-famous poet and author DH Lawrence came from nearby, and his dad Arthur and granddad Bert worked at the pit.
DH’s largely-autobiographical novel Sons and Lovers - which is critically acclaimed as one of his best - refers to a coal mine called Beggarlee.
The headstocks appear at the start of the film of the book, which in 1960 won an Oscar for cinematography.
It closed when the coal ran out in 1934, but was still in use as an access shaft until 1970.
Clipstone Colliery
Once a 1,000-yard deep colliery, this mine closed in 2003.
Its towering headstocks and powerhouse are both Grade II listed buildings.
Its slag heap has now been turned into Vicar Water Country Park, and is also a Green-flag awarded nature reserve.
If fishing is your thing, there’s a thriving course lake dug by the 5th Duke of Portland in the 1870s.
Gedling Colliery
The colliery was still in use until 1991, but after a fallow period it has now had new life breathed into it.
As it lay unused, nature took hold of the site. It went from slag heap, to scrub land, to a hive of natural activity, with huge varieties of now-native fauna, birds and other animals.
Seeing the opportunity, Gedling Borough Council entered into a 25 year lease with the land owners in 2014.
They ploughed in £1 million into developing paths and entrances, and improving the landscape.
It was then officially opened to the public in March 2015, and a few months later the Labour-run council bought the land outright.
Now known as Gedling Country Park, and boasting some of the best views in the county, it also has a cafe perched on top of it, looking down on where the coal was once hauled up.
On flat land next to it the country park, more than 1,000 houses are being built on a development known as Chase Farm.
The £40 million Gedling Access Road is also being built.
Harworth Colliery
When you think of coal mining, most people conjure up decades-old black-and-white images of coal miners with faces covered in black dust.
But the Harworth Colliery only closed as recently as 2006, bring an end to 86 years of coal mining in Bassetlaw.
Just a few years before it closed, it hit the prestigious million-tonne-a-year milestone.
In 2016, dozens of people turned out to watch the demolition of the old colliery tower.
But it was tougher and more stubborn than even the explosives experts thought, and it didn’t quite come down.
The demolition crew got their revenge on it a few days later though, and nothing now remains, though the land is now due to be used for housing.
Shireoaks Colliery
The shaft was begun as far back as 1854, and only closed in 1990, directly employing more than 1,000 workers at its peak.
The county council bought the site seven years after it closed, in 1997, and set about turning the slag heap into a 64-acre country park.
At the foot of the country park is a large marina, connecting the Chesterfield Canal which once served the pit.
Part of the site was also designated as a Local Wildlife Site in 2012.
Silverhill colliery
The coal mines of Nottinghamshire saw some bitter row over the years.
But years after the mine closed, when the artificial hill at Silverhill had been landscaped by the county council, a much more well-mannered dispute was settled.
Hill-climbing afficianadoes had - for a while at least thought that Silverhill was the ‘county top’ - the highest point in Nottinghamshire.
In 2005 Nottinghamshire County Council declared the man-made mount of Silverhill Wood the highest point in the county when they unveiled a sculpture of a miner on the landscaped spoil heap.
But three enthusiasts said a nearby lane was actually two feet higher.
So to get to the bottom of it, the three experts - who run a hill database online - spent three days tacking extremely precise measurements.
The result? The lane is higher by a nose hair. Thank goodness that dispute was settled without bloodshed.
Thoresby Colliery
The last of the Notts mines to close, the final piece of coal was extracted in July 2015.
When production ceased, it left just one deep mine in the whole country - Kellingley Colliery, across the border in Yorkshire, but even this closed just a few months later.
At one time the pit produced up to 100,000 tonnes in a week, making profits of £50m a year.
It was the last mine standing in what was one of the most successful coal fields in Europe.
