MORE than three decades after a North-East pit shut down, its underground seams and workings are giving modern day miners a view of the region's lost industrial heritage.

Opencast workers on a site at Brusselton, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, are digging out a mountain of coal left behind when the colliery closed in 1968.

Separating the "black gold" from clay, shale and debris left on the site has created some remarkable images of exposed seams, shafts and mine workings and given people living nearby a fascinating insight into the working lives of generations of men and boys.

Grafting at today's coal face is a world away from the suffocating, grimy and deadly occupation that fed Britain's industry and heated its homes.

UK Coal's modern 95 hectare Southfield site at Brusselton is crawling with giant trucks and machines digging down 60 metres either side of the old Dere Street Roman road.

Their target is the 580,000 tonnes of coal the company estimates was left behind when National Coal Board bosses shut down Brusselton Colliery after 134 years.

The company, now Britain's biggest coal producer, moved on to site in May 2002 after years of delays caused by inter-council planning rows and objections from environmentalists, parishes and neighbouring residents.

Valerie Whitby, a pro-badger campaigner and Heighington parish councillor, was one of the project's main opponents during its passage through the planning process.

Once the decision was made, she joined a liaison committee ironing out problems between UK Coal and surrounding communities.

Site manager Graeme Hindmarsh toured the latest workings with Mrs Whitby, her husband John and Brusselton-born Edna Taylor, a walking encyclopaedia on the area's people and history.

At Redmire Farm, Alf Wade's family could fill their coal buckets from where the Tilley seam emerged just outside their back door.

At Hilltop Farm, on the Shildon side, Michael Wade's 12 children could pick the coal off the tubs as they passed, part of a flight of skips running directly into Shildon Wagon Works.

Between 1905 and 1966, 11 miners lost their lives in underground accidents at Brusselton. In the 1960s, there were 360 men on the payroll.

Mrs Whitby said: "Standing in the coal seams today makes the hair stand up on the back of your head to realise what appalling conditions the miners worked under.

"It is helping us to understand what it must have been like to work underground in such tight spaces.

"I was very much against the project and I still have reservations, but we have worked well with UK Coal. They have done everything local people have asked for."

Despite the disruption, badger and deer still roam the site. UK Coal has also created hatching areas for the rare Dingy Skipper butterfly by moving plants and soil, and is planting 130,000 trees.

Restoration is already under way on two-thirds of the site and, with 6,000 tonnes of coal shifted every week, the project is on target for completion in August next year.

Mr Hindmarsh said: "Opencasting is so sensitive, there could be very few chances to see these things again. There were better engineers then than there are now.

"But when we came here, there were old miners who told us there was no coal left at Brusselton.

"We are getting out 6,000 tons a week - 100 per cent of the coal that is there.