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My father, Jim Ford, who has died aged 82, worked in the coalmines of Shropshire for 40 years. Coal has been mined in the county since medieval times. Jim started at Kemberton colliery in Madeley in 1955, and later worked at Granville colliery and Lea Hall colliery – all three now closed.
Jim was heavily involved in his union, the NUM, and went on strike in 1972 and 1974. During the miners’ strike of 1984-85, he was away for the year and he served as treasurer of the Shropshire striking miners’ funds.
He was born near Shifnal, Shropshire, during the war, at the height of the Battle of Britain. His mother, Thurza (nee Abrahams), worked as a farm hand. His father, Edgar Ford, who survived the first world war, became a career soldier. Shifnal was close to RAF Cosford and as a small boy Jim saw Italian prisoners of war arriving at Cosford and GIs gathering as D-day approached.
Jim was a brilliant footballer for Shifnal Town FC, with the year they won the league and county amateur cup. But there was no money in football and so at 15 he left school and started working in the local coalmines on the face. He was a fan of Manchester United and the Busby Babes, traveling to see them play often and was devastated by the Munich air crash in 1957.
He met Margaret Lane at a local dance in 1960 and they married in 1964. Before and after raising their five children, Margaret worked at a local grocery store.
Later, during the strike, when my father was the treasurer of the local fund of the striking miners, my mother was active in the wives’ group, collecting food, raising money and delivering parcels of food for striking families. Both my parents spoke at events to support the miners attended by politicians such as Tony Benn and Dennis Skinner, and the NUM president, Arthur Scargill. Benn praised my mother’s courage and determination in his speech that followed her.
With the decline of mining in the East Shropshire coalfield, it was clear to my father that coal had no future and he retired in 1995. He painted, and spent time supporting his family, and community, often speaking in schools about coal mining in Shropshire. He is a true Shropshire lad. He loves a pint, his football and walking his dog.
In retirement, he traveled with Mum to the US, around Europe, and to his beloved Wales (where his mother’s family had roots) and the West Country.
Margaret died in 2021. Jim is survived by his children – my sister, Karen, brothers, Michael, Richard and Steven, and me – and 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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