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Bag Yourself a Nugget of Our Mining History

Posted on: Friday, 4 November 2005, 06:00 CST

Bags of coal dug from the final seam of the region's last deep pit are to be sold for its community.

The mini-sacks ( each containing nuggets of coal from Ellington Colliery and printed with the pit's nickname Big E ( will be sold to raise cash for the former Northumberland mining village.

They will be offered for sale on internet auction site eBay, for a minimum of pounds 10.

It is hoped they will be attractive to buyers as mementos of deep mining in the Great Northern coalfield.

Each bag comes with a certificate confirming its authenticity and a small mining history booklet.

They are being sold by workers at the Lynemouth Resource Centre which provides a community centre, caf, computer-based learning courses for the village, just two miles from the pit which closed in January.

They secured more than a tonne of coal from the last seam at Ellington from owner UK Coal and hope the sale of 2,005 bags ( reflecting the year of the pit's closure ( will raise more than pounds 20,000.

It is hoped the mini-sacks will go on sale before Christmas and they will also be available to buy direct from the centre.

Project manager Andrew Gooding, 32, said: "UK Coal agreed to give us some raw coal from the last seam worked at the pit and we have washed, sorted and bagged it ready for sale.

"We hope it will be a useful earner for the centre."

Some of the last coal from Ellington has already been used by the NUM to fashion figurines of pitmen which people can buy as mementos of the industry.

Source: The Journal - Newcastle-upon-Tyne

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