Brassed Off - it's still grim up north

GRIMETHORPE - Come 1.30pm on a weekday in the colliery days, Grimethorpe Miners' Welfare Club would be alive with the sounds of the men off the early shift.

A plaque on the walls provides a reminder of their spirit: "First Aid Cup Winners 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1968" it reads, recalling the Saturday inter-pit contests to see which could save most lives in a simulated accident.

Today "the welfare" is empty, save a few former miners who declare that those looking for work have long since given up the ghost on the place.

"The work's in South Hempstall or up in Barnsley," said Victor Clarke, 64, who was a Grimethorpe "coalface man" before retiring in 1989. "There are no jobs and no social scene here."

The desolation is straight out of the film which assigned Grimethorpe a place in the spotlight 10 years ago.

Mark Herman's Brassed Off was inspired by Grimethorpe band's success in the National Brass Band championships, at a time when the pit's 33,000 miners faced losing their jobs.

A decade on, the town is better known but little better off and UK Coal says it is to withdraw its annual £80,000 ($217,550) sponsorship of the famous, and very popular, brass band.

Herman shares the view that the post-industrial years have not been kind to the town. "The knock-on effects are extraordinary," he said.

"Every aspect of life in a colliery town changes when the pit closes and [it] is still not in any great shape. It's struggling to move on."

The High Street is almost bare. The much-loved chip shop, In Cod We Trust, a feature in the film, is bricked up. The supermarket is due to close.

Just 37 per cent of Grimethorpe's adult population is economically active and the average household income is £8000 compared with a national average of £20,000. Nearly 46 per cent of locals are on housing benefit and 33 per cent are unemployed.

The Grimethorpe Regeneration Executive has been too busy trying to halt an exodus to create an inevitable Brassed Off "heritage trail". The only recognition of the pit is a memorial to the 154 men who died between 1894 and its closure 99 years later.

Herman reflects on how his film nearly did not get off the ground. Channel 4 TV agreed to provide half of the money, but the other half came from an unlikely source: Harvey Weinstein's Miramax studio. "Nobody in England wanted to do a film about suicidal trumpet players," he said. "I think it touched a nerve with Weinstein, because it is quite a heart-warming story."

MINE TOWN BLUES

Orgreave, South Yorks

Site of a battle between police and miners during the 1984 strike. Plans mooted to build a leisure resort on the site, the largest theatre outside London and homes for 8000 people.

Annesley, Nottinghamshire

The old colliery is derelict, strewn with orange overalls, boxes of receipts and glass from the canteen - decades after the miners' strike.

Ellington, Northumberland

The last 18 workers left the site in November when the colliery closed, marked by a march past the gates with brass band accompaniment.

- INDEPENDENT