THERE was a time when coal mining was the most important thing in North-East life - even more important than football.

Nowadays we talk about striking a work–life balance, but there was no such concept when coal was king.

A very important person was missing from the 94,493 Wembley Stadium crowd that saw England defeat Portugal to secure their place in the 1966 World Cup Final.

Bobby Charlton played a blinder that day, scoring two goals during a man-of-the match performance regarded as a highpoint of his career. But while Bobby and the boys basked in the glow of their victory over Eusebio and Co, the family's patriarch Bob Charlton was stuck in a lamplit world hundreds of feet underground.

Bob worked at Ashington Colliery. On an episode of the This is Your Life TV programme broadcast in 1969 which celebrated his son’s career Mr Charlton senior explained to host Eamonn Andrews why he was forced to choose coal over goals.

He recalled: “I thought it was asking a bit too much to ask the manager to be off to go and see that match, so I says to my wife Ciss, ‘You had better deputise for me and go, and I’ll go to work.’

“I was down the mine with my friend Jack Jarvis unloading girders when my overman came running out of his office and said ‘Bobby’s scored’. He was getting his information from the time office on the surface.

“Well, I was delighted. Shortly after he threw his hat up a height, he says ‘Bobby’s scored again’. So I think that finished the girders that night,” said Bob.

Asked recently if he ever feared that he would follow his father down the mines, the former Manchester United playmaker, said: “Never. My dad made it very plain if I could find anything better I should do it...everyone who went down to the mines was miserable, but when they came back up they were smiling.”

Not all of them. This week, wreaths were laid in remembrance of the 168 lives lost in the West Stanley Pit disaster – a reminder of the huge toll this region paid to the mining industry.

At the start of the last century, 100,000 men worked the Durham coalfield. Nowadays a few hundred are employed at Durham-based surface miners Banks Group, and Hargreaves Services. The country’s last three surviving deep mines are set to close by the end of the decade.

Yet coal-powered stations continue to provide about a third of our electricity – although most of their fuel is shipped from Siberia, South America and the US.

Germany has plans for ten new coal-fired power stations. Three are being built in the Netherlands. India and China regard coal as integral to their future growth. But in the country where Bob Charlton grafted, the coal industry is being allowed to burn out.

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