Christopher Mear
Coalville, 2008 - 2016
I was born in 1990, as the coal mining industry was coming to an end in Leicestershire. The last pit to shut was Bagworth in ’91. I would have been almost twelve months old. Bagworth Colliery was once the most productive pit in Europe, and even held a place in the Guinness Book Of Records.
My name is Chris. Coal mining was one of this Country’s most significant industries. It built communities and then supported them through thick and thin, peace and war. In 2008 I started photographing the former Leicestershire coalfield, two decades after Bagworth shut-up-shop and the ‘black gold’ era came to an end.