All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S05E07.Death.Behind.Bars.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Tom ward (narrates): A
strange ruined landscape littered

with signs of a
deadly past life.

It feels like someone was
kept down here not by choice

but against their will.

A place in West Virginia that held
some of america's worst criminals.

Things are just getting
worse and worse and worse,

it had to reach a
breaking point eventually.

A unique construction
that flew the flag

for Cuba following
the revolution.

Claire: This was
fidel's bright idea,

this was the future and he
wanted it done very quickly

but outside the political
climate is definitely changing.

And a colliery that was once
the most productive in the UK.

Rob: This was obviously
once a booming site.

But something went
wrong here and fast.

Decaying relics and
ruins of lost worlds,

they were forged by years of toil
and are now haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

(Theme music)

In West Virginia in the usa

there's a vast building
that looks like a fortress.

Approaching the building and
gazing upon these 24ft high walls

it's an immensely
imposing experience.

There's a distinct feeling that you
are going to be unwelcome here.

Jim: This building looks kind of
like a European castle or palace

but with a very gloomy
and highly fortified aspect.

But those expecting to
find a kind of fairytale place

are likely to be
very disappointed.

Dominic: Inside, it's really
not clear what this place is.

There's a canteen with paintings

and upstairs there's even
medical and dental equipment,

there's something rather
dark and sinister about it all.

In fact, this building
has connections

with one of america's
most notorious criminals.

And some believe that the
halls are haunted by the spirits

of those who were once here.

You get deeper inside
you notice the graffiti,

the rusting iron
bars, the peeling paint

and the feeling that terrible
things happened here.

Clearly this was never
designed to be a happy place,

it's all now falling
apart and decaying,

that just adds to the
overall air of despair.

So, how did this place
become infamous?

Local historian Ryan zacherl knows
all about the building's dark past.

This was one of the most
horrific places in the world

and still to this
day it's notorious

for the atrocities
that occurred here.

The building dates back to
the birth of West Virginia in 1863

when a series of
escapes from county jails

saw the new state looking
to improve the prison system.

The inmates completely up
and left and were never found,

and it was at that
point that they realised

they needed something
higher security,

they needed something more
permanent to contain the criminals.

The solution was this.

The West Virginia penitentiary.

This was no ordinary prison.

From the very beginning

it was designed to hold
the worst of the worst.

This place was
supposed to be a fortress

for which escape was impossible.

But in the 20th century

a frightening social trend began
to put pressure on the penitentiary.

In wider society ever more
people were being convicted

and of increasingly
violent crimes.

The prison was designed to
house only a few hundred people,

yet it ended up with over 2,000,

the result was
uncontrollable violence.

To combat the danger areas
of the prison were sectioned off.

The premeditated slaughtering's
of their fellow inmates

made this the most
dangerous cell block

in the West
Virginia penitentiary.

They called this
cell block the "alamo"

because they
genuinely believed that

they wouldn't make
it out of here alive,

they had to spend at least
22 hours out of every day

locked inside these 5x7 cells

and they are absolutely tiny.

But locking up the prisoners
didn't stop the violence.

It was all about survival
inside this cell block

and survival meant
arming themselves,

they would cut pieces of
metal off the doors or the bunks

and once they had
that piece of metal off

on the inside of their cell

they could bend down and actually
sharpen that knife on the concrete

which you can see
scratch marks right here

where an inmate turned
that from a dull piece of steel

into a deadly knife.

And the inmates here weren't
only prepared to kill each other.

Chuck gent was a
guard at the facility

for nine brutal years.

What happened was
they was doing a survey

to find out how
hard it got in here

and they stuck
thermometers up everywhere.

The inmates stole and broke it
open and stole all the Mercury

then they tried to poison
me with it in a cup of coffee.

I got fortunate

when I happened to glance
down into the cup and found it.

There wasn't a day
you didn't come in here,

you wasn't in fear of your life.

The horrors of this place have
stayed with Chuck ever since.

You have flashbacks
when you see a guy

with a 25 pound weight
plate buried in his forehead

or a 12 piece of steel
which runs up to his eye

and up in to his brain and
out the back of his head,

a guy set on fire
and he's burning,

his skin's boiling
and stuff like this,

you end up having a hard
side to you to survive this.

Despite all that went on inside,

the prison somehow became
something of a public attraction.

94 men convicted of some
of the most violent crimes

were executed in a building
called the death house

that once stood out
here on the north yard.

They used to perform
these executions

by hanging publicly.

People would literally travel miles
to come and watch these executions,

they would sell tickets to these

and people would
bring their whole family,

the kids would come,

they'd have a picnic
during the execution.

While the prison provided

ghoulish entertainment
for the public,

it was also popular
with some members

of the criminal
fraternity and here's why.

There's this room
called the sugar shack

where prisoners could go,
there was no supervision,

the guards never went down there,
they were afraid to go down there

and all kinds of terrible
things happened,

some prisoners
liked this set up,

some of them actually asked
to be transferred to this prison

because they knew
they'd have more freedom

to engage in drugs,
violence, gangs.

Amongst those hoping to
find themselves in the prison

was one of the most
infamous criminals

in American history.

A man who also had a
very personal link to it.

In the late 1930s a woman
named Kathleen Maddox

she was sentenced
to serve time here,

she had a young son
named Charlie Maddox,

this little boy came
to visit his mother

inside this penitentiary.

This little boy
eventually went on

to become the infamous
Charles manson.

In march 1983,

the prison warden
was handed a letter.

After serving 12 years of a
life sentence for the murders

that had shocked america,

Charles manson was
requesting a transfer here.

There was no way the
authorities were gonna allow that

and the warden at the prison
at the time wrote back, he said,

it would quote, "be
a cold day in hell

"before Charles manson
moved to West Virginia."

Even without the evil manson
West Virginia penitentiary

was struggling to do the
very thing it was designed for.

West Virginia state prison
was supposed to be a fortress

from the very beginning.

Just 'cause they built it
as an inescapable fortress,

didn't mean it was
actually inescapable.

In November of 1979

we had the largest mass
escape from this penitentiary,

15 inmates created a
plan to smuggle in a firearm,

take an officer hostage,

get to the control panel

and eventually let themselves
out of the front door of this prison.

The city of moundsville
was absolutely terrified.

Outside an exchange of gun
fire killed a trooper and an inmate,

the other 14 escapees
were eventually recaptured.

This was just one of
more than 200 escapes

from the penitentiary.

Prisoners even joked openly
about how easy it was to escape.

The idea of an impregnable
fortress had failed spectacularly.

Eventually, all the inmates
managed to get out of the prison

because the supreme court ruled
that the site was unfit for purpose

and closed it down.

In 1995, it doors
shut for the final time.

Today, decades
after it was abandoned

the penitentiary
has become a mecca

for those interested
in the super natural.

This penitentiary is thought to
be one of the most haunted places

in the United States of America

and one of the most common
forms of supernatural phenomena

is a shadow figure
called the shadow man.

In 2004, a lady named Paula

actually captured
it in a photograph.

She saw the figure
walking towards her

so she took one
picture down this hallway

and right in front of this door

the figure was
standing looking at her.

Even with the sites
worst days long gone

perhaps the horrors here
are still not quite over.

On the outskirts of the
Cuban capital of Havana

are the eerie remains

of the Caribbean
island's turbulent past.

Claire: In amongst this
lush green tropical landscape

suddenly there are pops
of orange and red terracotta

coming through the palm trees.

But they're not rectangular,
they're not identikit,

they're kind of moving
with the landscape,

they're organic, they're flowing,
there's no clear entrance to...

To any of them.

These buildings
are so fantastical,

something really ignited
someone's imagination

and let it run free in these
shapes and these designs.

There's one very noticeable thing
about their distinctive appearance.

Whoever built this
put a lot of thought

into how people walking
through it would experience it.

So, within the landscape,
one thing that you really notice

is that there's hardly a right
angle in the entire place,

it's all about exploring
round corners,

it's all about wondering
what lies around the bend.

What was this strange
and unusual place built for

and how did it become
involved in the Cuban revolution?

It's clear that there
is decay in places

that clearly nature's been
allowed to take over in a small way

but then there were some areas
that they look like foundations

that have never been completed.

There's a sense of
whatever stopped that process

happening very abruptly.

You have to wonder

why did suddenly
construction just stop?

It looked like it
was going so well.

The origins of this striking site
date back to the early 1960s.

A time when Cuba was going through
a period of extraordinary upheaval.

Although they were intended
as a place of calm and tranquillity

to inspire young minds,

the grand structures here were
born of revolution and conflict.

James: In the 1950s,

Cuba had been under the
dictatorship of fulgencio Batista,

it was an incredibly
corrupt country.

And a small group
of revolutionaries

started a war against
the government.

Those revolutionaries were
the infamous fidel Castro

and his loyal lieutenant
Ernesto Che Guevara.

Together, they would transform
Cuba and these buildings forever.

In late 1959, they
defeated the army,

Castro nationalises all the...

The foreign industries,
all the larger industries,

even the small stores and
shops will be taken over by Castro.

He institutes a through going
communist ideological state.

Cuban's initially saw
Castro as a revolutionary,

as a romantic figure

and they didn't
realise his true nature.

In time, that true nature

would bring misery
to the Cuban people

and threaten the
peace of the wider world.

But in the immediate aftermath
of the bloody revolution,

a wave of optimism
swept the war torn country.

In 1961, fidel Castro
and Che Guevara

they decide to go and play
golf one day in the elite club,

a place that they previously
never been allowed anywhere near.

They say what a shame it
is that this has been shut off

for most of the Cuban people

and shouldn't they
experience it as well

and they hatch a plan,
a very ambitious plan

to change this golf course
into something else entirely.

So, what did these
two revolutionaries

have in mind for this place?

And why did its architect
end up fleeing for his life?

Castro asked a young
Cuban architect Ricardo porro

to design the site

and he was going to
produce five separate buildings

each with a separate purpose.

This is Cuba's
national school of art.

A series of ambitious structures
designed to nurture excellence

in ballet, modern dance,
visual arts, music and drama.

This is the birth of
an idea and remember

for your real communist,

real revolutionaries
art is very important,

art is there to
serve the revolution.

Local man Jose villa soberon
came here to study sculpture.

I started studying in the year
1966 when I was 16 years old.

To a young boy who
wanted to study art

it was like discovering
a brand new world.

Given just two months
to come up with the plans

porro recruited two
friends to help him.

They were vittorio garatti
and Roberto gottardi.

The young architects poured
their heart and soul into the project

taking their inspiration
from the changing times

in which they were living.

You walk along the
corridors and you lose sense

of where you're coming
from and where you're going

and that was intentional,

the message that he
was trying to communicate

is that Cuba had
moved on from it's history

and was forging a new future.

Each school was unique

but they all shared one
clever piece of engineering

that helped speed
up construction

and which encouraged
those flowing shapes,

the catalan arch.

The catalan arch or a dome
you start off with a brick,

a very thin brick and then you
use a very quick drying cement

and you butt up one against
it and then another one

and then another one and
because it's all held into place

quite quickly you don't need
a false work to support it.

After a construction
period of just one year

and with building
work still going on,

the doors of the
school were opened.

The students arrived while the
whole place was a building site

and had lessons in the club
house and around in the grounds,

it was a real family feel,

there was a real
buzz about the place.

Students would play music
to help the workers in their task

and there was a real atmosphere

of hope and excitement
about the future.

It's like a huge
stimulus for imagination,

it creates a magical
environment for work.

But the campus modelled
on the idealistic dreams

of the revolution would
soon turn into a nightmare.

Soviet influence in the
country was growing

and a deadly storm was brewing.

The Americans see in Castro's
friendliness to the Soviet union

a direct threat to
the United States.

In 1962 the world will
come close to nuclear war

with the Cuban missile crisis.

After the Cuban missile crisis

the country was forced
to start prioritising defence

over other considerations

and suddenly this grand
project faced a cash flow problem.

And as the Cuban leadership
strengthened its ties to the ussr

the country began to see

more utilitarian Soviet
styled architecture.

There's a lot of criticism
from the Russians

about this art school

and there's criticism again
from some of the Cubans,

who see that this
is a regression.

What was earlier seen
as this grand experiment

in creativity and
artistic freedom

now starts to look like

it's a bit bourgeois,
it's a bit indulgent.

Before long construction was
stopped and the school closed down.

Builders pulled off site,
the architects are let go

and the schools are just
left as they stand on that day.

The ballet school still
hasn't even got its flooring in.

But for the people that
designed the school of arts

there was a more
worrying prospect.

Cast as bourgeois
enemies of the state,

the ministry of construction
began a campaign

to destroy their reputations.

So, the lead architect porro,

he lived and breathed these
projects for a couple of years

and he was absolutely
devastated and he left Cuba

and ended up working in
Europe and the rest of the world.

Vittorio garatti is
accused of espionage,

he's jailed and eventually
he's expelled from Cuba.

While the closure of the school
was devastating for students,

today it's going through
something of a rebirth.

For students like
Jose villa soberon

the closure of the school of
arts in Cuba had a lasting impact.

I really regret not having been
able to continue that moment

in Cuban culture
during the 1960s.

It was an era full of romance,
dreams and with such high hopes.

Today, the school is experiencing
an unexpected renaissance

with the ambitious architecture

finally being given
the plaudits it deserved.

In the 1990s, architects
from outside Cuba

started to take a closer
look at these buildings

and recognise the creativity
that had gone into them.

The future does look optimistic
and although never finished

it looks finally like
funding might be available

from Europe to complete the job.

Lost in the quiet countryside
50 miles north of Paris,

a strange dwellings
carved into rock.

Some parts of this place
seem almost fantastical

but this is only one element
in a truly intriguing site.

They hide a surprising secret.

You're out in the bright
sunlight in the summer

and then you go
through an entrance

and you're down in
the underground world.

It just draws you in into this
maze of rock and paths and tunnels.

And occasionally
you've got trees

growing up escaping
out of this tunnel.

In the depths of the site
are cold silent hollows.

You have a feeling of wonder
when you go underground

and you see these large
stone columns and chambers

and then tunnels in dark
places going off in every direction.

Lining the walls are
signs of a former life.

There are clues scattered
all over this place,

there are markings
of names and dates,

drawings of figures.

It feels like it could have
been some kind of prison,

keeping people hidden
out of sight, underground.

But there's one carving
near the entrance

that seems to offer
the biggest clue.

Here you have a carving

of the goddess
Athena in military gear.

You have an
inscription "never pass"

and this is a clue to
what this place really is.

So, what was this
site designed to stop?

It was during the 19th century
that this place came to prominence

when a decision was made
to rebuild the capital city.

Paris in the 19th
century was a mess,

it was dirty diseased
and crime ridden

and effectively sunk
into a den of sin and vice.

They wanted to
build Paris into a city

that was fit to be
France's capital.

The plan was to build
these new wide boulevards

and avenues but to
redesign a city in this way

you need building materials

and that is where
this place came in.

These are the
quarries of montigny.

It was already an
established lime stone quarry

and suddenly it gained
a new importance.

For local resident
Eric bouchenez

it's clear to see how
the large heavy blocks

were carved out one by one.

(Speaks French)

Translation: "From
the stone cutting

"you can distinguished
the tool that was used.

"Here you can see
the efforts of those men

"identified by the rounded
marks left by their picks."

This was not easy work,

it was all done by hand
and you start at the top,

you chisel away, you keep going,

you keep going and your hole just
gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

Translation: "No mechanical
equipment was used,

"everything was down
to hard physical labour."

But these are
not the only things

of interest hidden down
here in the darkness.

Other walls give clues
to a very different use

during one of the most brutal
periods of the 20th century.

With all the evidence
of chlorine here,

you now see all kinds of marks

from 1914 to 1918
all over the walls.

This is clearly a
world war I site.

By September 1914,

German forces had
advanced in to northern France,

at the battle of la marne

they were driven
back to this location.

What happened next helped
shape the nature of the war

for the next four years.

The Germans were
heading straight for Paris

but the British and French
managed to intercept them

and halt their progress.

What followed was
the defining experience

of 1914 to 1918, trench warfare.

There were to be very many
dangers for those soldiers

stuck on the front lines.

But one in particular struck
terror into the troops on both sides.

Artillery is the big
killer of the war.

If you want to avoid
the artillery shells,

the only solution is
deep underground

and by happen-stance
the front came to a stop

in 1914 very close to here.

This was world war
I, artillery was the key,

it was all about bomb power

and so you've got these
bombs going off above you,

you've got your gun fire but
what makes this place special

is obviously you're protected,
you've got that stone above you.

The underground lair that
had once helped to rebuild Paris

eventually became a place
that was vital to the defence

of the very same city.

Translation: "So, these huge spaces
were occupied by the French army.

"They took over
the whole quarry,

"you need to imagine
how gigantic it is.

"At its peak you had
between 200 and 500 soldiers

"living here in the quarry
and the surrounding area."

Underground facilities

became a very, very
important part of world war I

and you would have in
some cases headquarters,

hospitals and depots and rear
areas, it's a safe place for the soldiers.

It was the last place the men

would have gone before
going on to the front line

and it was the first place
they would have gone

to after coming
off the front line.

There would have just
been such a mixed bag

of emotions going on there.

The carvings and etchings
here are haunting reflections

of the troops
unsettling environment.

Translation: "So, those
men stationed here

"for days and weeks on end,

"they had to keep busy,
the front was not far off.

"And death was all around,

"so to kill time, they
began sculpting."

But one area seems
to be something more

than the work of idle
hands whiling away the time.

"So, here you
find the old chapel,

"built by a soldier
named Leopold Michelle

"he built this in December 1914.

"This chapel was
built to provide hope

"to the men stationed here.

"Don't forget, during the
war there were a lot of deaths

"and many were not sure that
they would come back the next day.

"So, they needed a place
to pray and to lift their spirits."

For the men living here
danger was never far away.

The trenches were
right on their doorstep

and they knew that sooner
or later an attack would come.

The Germans on the
other side had their quarries

and their underground facilities
and they bought in engineers

and they would try to
tunnel under the enemy lines

and plant explosives.

They had to be alert

to the German's
appearing out of the woods

or through a secret
tunnel that they'd dug.

These were fears from
which they could never escape.

After four years of stalemate
in 1918 a breakthrough came

when both sides
developed new strategies

that would end the
static war of the trenches.

What would be the fate of the
men in the quarries of montigny?

In 1918, the German army began

its last major
offensive of world war I

and it would shatter the
silence in the deep caverns

of montigny in France.

It's all about the
technology coming together

with new tactics and applications
that can break the trench lines.

You initiate a massive
opening bombardment

just a few hours before
the infantry attack.

The Germans were
looking for a point of entry

and when they found one,

they would have funnelled
down in to the base

bringing the fight to
the heart of the complex.

Clues to what happened
here are found in the darkness.

Here you can see that there's
obviously been some type of hit

but that hit didn't
come from externally,

that actually came
from internally.

Translation: "Here you
can see large blocks that fell,

"there isn't another
place that looks like this

"in the entire quarry.

"So, there was probably
a large explosion

"detonated to stop the enemy."

But it was all to no avail,

nothing could be done
to halt the German attack.

The French soldiers had
little choice but to fall back.

Essentially an
underground facility like this

is not built to be defended,

it's a refuge and if
the enemy breaks

through then you evacuate.

"So, there was a
surge of men here,

"we had to retreat
because they used gas

"and lots of heavy artillery
fell on to our quarry."

While the situation may have
looked desperate the allied forces

had their own
plans to strike back.

And within months
the war would be over.

The Germans are becoming
exhausted, it's a limited breakthrough,

it's a limited advance
before it stops and Peters out.

So, the allied forces
retook the quarry site

and the surrounding land

and eventually it was transformed
from a war-zone to a place of peace.

Just over six miles from this base
is where the armistice was signed.

The blood loss and horror
that had been witnessed

along this line was
finally brought to an end.

At last the fighting days were
over for the quarries of montigny,

now it began a new life that
recalled its original purpose.

After the war the
quarrying returned

and so people returned and
this place became homes again.

The houses you see here
speak of a long tradition

going back to the start of
quarrying 300 years ago.

The last people to leave
only left in the 1970s

and that's their home that
you can still see here today.

Deep in the British countryside
there's a sleeping giant.

Rob: This complex completely
dominates the landscape,

got beautiful brick buildings,

you can spot the
ruins of old pipelines,

you've got massive towers and
pumps and these piles of broken up rock

and concrete everywhere.

Dominic: The site
is highly impressive,

there's a vast
array of buildings

and it's clear a great deal of
money was clearly spent on them,

it was once a booming site

but something must have
gone wrong here and quite fast.

Inside the buildings
lurk other hidden features

that hint at what
this site once was.

This was clearly a quasi
industrial set up of some sort,

a large scale operation at
one point employing hundreds

maybe thousands of people
all bent towards one crucial task.

But now it's a sad odd
place, it's abandoned,

it's slowly
succumbing to nature.

There are railway
carriages just left abandoned

and then this huge chimney,

this must be a clue
as to what this site was.

Clearly there was
something valuable here

that made building
all this worthwhile

but what was it
and where is it now?

This sprawling work site was
originally intended to transform

the area of north staffordshire

but it was no easy task.

When this site was built

the resources of
the land around here

were ready and waiting to
be tapped into and exploited.

So, there's great
wealth to be had,

it's there for the taking but
it's not going to come easy,

people are gonna
have to put their lives

on the line to get to it.

The source of that wealth remains
hidden from view even today.

Nigel Smith is
a local historian.

This is chatterley Whitfield,

the site that used to produce
material that powered a nation.

Coal powered everything,

people's homes,
businesses, industry,

with coal you had an economy

and with an economy
you had wealth.

A coal steams of
north staffordshire

are some of the
richest in the world.

Of the coal mines in the region
this was the Jewel in the crown,

it had the greatest man power

and the highest
production rate of any mine.

At one time it was
employing 5,000 people

and 4,000 of those
worked underground.

But working here often
came at a deadly price.

In 1937, one area of the
mine wrote it's name in history.

There were several shafts
on site but this is the hesketh,

the hesketh is the first
shaft anywhere in the UK

to be responsible for producing
one million tonnes of saleable coal.

In today's money that would
be worth over 50 million pounds.

It was a hugely
profitable business

but to bring coal
out of the seams

required specialist machinery
and some very brave miners.

Roy neate was only 17 when
he was first sent down the pit.

I felt terrified at first.

It's like the darkness,
and then the noises,

as soon as you hear a
noise you're looking round.

Where's that? You know?

If you hear a creak you think
the roof is going to come in.

Throughout much of the
19th and 20th centuries

the miners faced
many deadly situations.

I saw a bloke killed.

We were salvaging the face,

getting all the
material off the face.

They were pumping
cement in the sides,

to build a big wall and
they put too much cement in

and we just got past
and it exploded out.

The blocks hit him
and killed him instantly

and then we had
to carry him out.

It's very dangerous.

Despite the risks

the wheels of production
had to keep on turning.

Coal was absolutely essential
to the running of the country.

The biggest accident
happened in 1881,

from records the accident
itself seemed to have stemmed

from an underground
fire that got out of hand

and obviously that
ignited the methane gas

that was below ground and
there was a huge explosion.

24 men and boys lost their lives

and to this day there are still
bodies actually underground.

Over two centuries,

the north staffordshire coal seam
saw more than 4,500 fatalities.

And in the late 1930s,

a terrifying new threat
came to add to the dangers.

When world war ii broke out,

the demand for coal
in britain sky rocketed,

it was needed to fuel
the armaments industry,

the munitions industry,

to fuel soldiers homes
and their families homes,

they were going to need
to produce more coal

faster than they had
ever done before.

This place had to become

an even more productive
mining machine,

a constant inferno of activity.

They had to put in place
a whole new infrastructure

which included crushing
plants, underground railway lines,

networks of pipes on
land and deep tunnels.

The whole British economy
was dependant on coal

and the Germans knew it.

Hitler knew how
vital the coal industry

was to the entire
British economy

and particularly its ability
to produce munitions,

to keep fighting,
he wanted to stop

the British coal
industry at any price.

Stoke on Trent was a
strategic high priority target

for the Nazis,

the Germans knew what
a productive town it was...

And they wanted to destroy
the industry at the city.

German bombing
raids on stoke on Trent

had a devastating impact,

bringing some of the industry
here to a near standstill.

Fortunately, the luftwaffe never
succeeded in destroying the mines.

But eventually
cheaper alternative fuels

came to threaten the
supremacy of king coal.

For the men that worked
here the writing was on the wall.

Oil became a highly
strategic product

and the United Kingdom
depended on its colonial empire

and its dominance of the
middle east for its supply.

In 1946, 90% of
the UK's electricity

was produced from coal.

By the mid 1970s that figure
had dropped by nearly 30%.

Coal it seemed was out.

The mine couldn't compete
and its gates closed in 1977.

But the mining
industry wasn't prepared

to go down without a fight.

And what happened
shortly afterwards

changed the landscape
of British politics forever.

It was without doubt

the most bitter industrial
dispute in British history

and its long term impact
is still being felt today.

The strike in '85,
that was terrible.

One or two went to work,

there were hundreds and hundreds
of pickets trying to stop them.

Violent confrontations
between the picketers

and police were common

and the strike ended
with a decisive victory

for the conservative government,

the collieries were closed

and that was largely the
end of coal mining in britain.

Today, the collieries
huge winding engines

lie silent and abandoned

but for the men that worked here

the world that once was
will never be forgotten.

It was just brilliant,
the camaraderie and...

That's what we want
to try and do now.

We got a lot of memories.

Now, they're abandoned
crumbling ruins,

many remind us of dark times

but some were once
beacons of hope and progress.

Lasting testimonies
to human imagination,

enterprise and spirit.

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