New book recalls Northumberland Coalfields

He remembers: "We learned a lot back then. We were taught how to administer first aid underground, the use of machinery and handling pit ponies. More than you would probably be taught nowadays."

As soon as his training was completed he began work at Ellington Colliery, the last mine to close in the North East, in 2005. He laughs as he recalls his greenhorn ride - the first time he and his fellow junior miners took the lift down the mineshaft.

"Everyone got the greenhorn ride. We got into the lift, and the winderman, the man who was operating it from the surface, just let it go full tilt. We dropped quickly down the shaft" he says.

"It really brings your stomach up to your chest. I don't know how far we actually dropped, he just took the brakes off and let it go!"

Practical jokes like this helped to unite the miners while they worked in dangerous conditions. He says: "There was such a sense of camaraderie. Everyone watched each others' back. You made friendships for life."

Old Pitmatic words like inbye and outby, meaning towards the coal face and back to the lift shaft, were once commonly heard in Northumberland's mining communities, but the language of pitmen is disappearing now, Neil says.

"There'll always be slang, but the language that was Pitmatic is dying out now because all of the old mining communities are disappearing."

It is a language that features heavily in his new book. Many of the quotes from miners and their families are peppered with words like goaf, kist, and lowse, and a Pitmatic dictionary is provided at the start of the book to help readers unfamiliar with the language.

Neil worked through a time of great changes for the mining industry in the North East.

Increased industrialisation brought in more efficient machinery, and Neil saw a bright future for the region's coal industry. The successful miners' strike of 1972 filled him with confidence.

He says: "Back then I saw no end to the industry. The 1972 strike was a great victory. Not just for wages, it brought better working conditions and holiday allowances.

"We never envisaged the miners' strike of 1984 would decimate the coal industry."

Through Neil's career several disasters struck the region's mines, and his book documents those accidents, along with devastating rock falls and explosions before he was born.

Although the region's mining heritage came to an end just over four years ago with the closure of the Ellington pit following severe flooding, Neil still holds some hope for the future of coal in the region.

He says: "There are still millions of tonnes of coal out there, under Druridge Bay, close to the Ellington pit."

The future of the region's coal may be uncertain, but plans to commemorate the area's 800-year mining tradition are set in stone, with a memorial to miners to be raised at the site of the Ellington pit this month.

Neil, as chairman of the Ellington Miners' Institute, helped raise £76,000 towards the bronze 8ft 6ins statue of a miner and a pit wheel.

Memories Of The Northumberland Coalfields will be available from local bookshops priced £8.99 from October 8.

Jackie Milburn talks to Ashington pitmen in 1988

Read more about the history of Ellington Colliery »