Coal Town

Mik Critchlow is a social documentary photographer based in the North East. His book Coal Town, published by Bluecoats Press, looks at Ashington, where he was born and still lives:

Ashington is a small coastal town, north of Newcastle Upon Tyne, in Northumberland. Before the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947, it was the headquarters of the Ashington Coal Company, which paternally controlled the work, housing, education, leisure and social behaviour of its workforce.The town owed its very existence to coal mining but, although extracting coal was the dominant factor in their lives, miners and their families shared many interests and enjoyed a strong tradition of community life.

On his photography:

I truly believe that being born and educated in an area gives you a better insight into the lives of people and the environment which you are photographing. Many of the people I photographed were known to me as people with whom I had first-hand knowledge; had met regularly on the streets, went to school with, drank in the same bars and clubs. I was never seen as a threat to their privacy, I was known only as someone who always had a camera. I always made work prints to give to people whom I’d photographed, to continue the relationship further and make other introductions, to enter into other situations/environments that might otherwise have been closed to other photographers who were seen as ‘outsiders’.

I come from a traditional mining family going right back to my Great Great Grandfather who travelled from Cornwall to Staffordshire. My Great Grandfather relocated to Ashington in the 1850’s with his family to begin work in the local mines. It’s a fourth generation thing: my grandfathers, father and my two brothers, as well as my uncles and cousins, have all worked within the coal mining industry. This helped me greatly to gain access to the local collieries and the men and women who worked there. When asked my name I would always be greeted with a smile “I know your Dad/Uncle/Brother”, it helped to break the ice as far as making photographs was concerned, my reasons for being there.

Colliery Housing 1977