A Miner's Son - 2014
Born in 1985 and growing up in Horden meant I was part of a new generation, a generation directly affected by the outcome of the political events throughout the 1980's.
Closing the pits down resulted in mass unemployment, neglected infrastructure, poor housing and general lack of funding and attention from the authorities. Once thriving, the coalfields were now decaying under the footsteps of the children who used them as their playgrounds.
Despite the government's promise to regenerate and renovate the area, by the time I had left school it was clear that the redevelopment plans were a false promise. As a son of a former miner, I returned to the village I knew as a child to document the effects the closure of the coal mine has had on the village 30 years later.
