A complicated point Colonel as I think social and cultural changes would also have to be considered. Take mining in Cornwall in its heyday, although I’m sure other areas will be the same, I’m pretty sure the overriding consideration of miners and their families would have been purely and simply, survival. We rightly look back at our mining heritage with pride but sometimes I feel with rose tinted glasses attached to the hindsight. It was a period of death, sickness, starvation and exploitation. Which makes the achievements of miners and their families even more remarkable and it’s these achievements that we remember today, hopefully not forgetting the price paid. Reminds me of a verse from the Cornish poet and miner John Harris.
A month was nearly ended,
And he severe had wrought
Day after day in darkness,
And it was all for nought
The mineral vein had faded
And now all hope was fled,
Tomorrow should be payday
His children have no bread.
If the metal industry was still thriving I like to think that miners and the rest would still look back and remember the importance of the past even though there have huge changes in social and cultural conditions. But I have my doubts.
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.