I remember working on a tunnel job in Mansfield at the time of the closure. I was only there a couple of weeks, doing some 'agency' surveying until the site staff came available from other projects, but I remember the steady flow of miners looking for work at the gates, and being turned away because their skills weren't relevant.
another story at the time was of a fatal accident in the last weeks of working caused ( I believe ) by over-cutting of pillars
and failure of the roof-bolting which was the main support remaining
''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.