Despite the closure of the majority of the deep coal mines across the UK throughout the 19^th century, culminating in the political clashes of the 1984-1985 National Miner’s Strike, the identity of coal mining is still crucial to ex-coal mining communities across the UK coalfields. These communities experienced extensive decline following the closure of the coal mines, which served as the primary source of employment but also of social networks and cultural focus. Even 40 years later, the impact of these closures is evident as these communities are frequently labelled as “left-behind” in comparison to the development of other parts of the UK.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in an area of the South Wales coalfield in particular, this paper discusses the socio-cultural legacies of the deeply politicised closures of coal mines. By focusing on the history of such areas and the culture of coal-mining villages, this paper highlights how economic and political transitions (towards a neoliberal service-based economy) has deep consequences for the identities of those rooted in extractivist communities. This paper attends to the social practices, everyday behaviours and emotive forms of remembering to consider how these communities have navigated societal shifts, and how they reconstruct their identity as “mining communities” even in the long-standing absence of coal mining.