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The 'National Coal Board' ('NCB') was the Statutory Corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in Britain. It was created in 1947 as part of Clement Attlee's Labour nationalisation of industries. Coal mining employed over 700,000 people in 1950, but successive governments reduced the size of the industry. Closures were originally concentrated in Scotland, but then moved into North East England, Lancashire, and South Wales, and then into all the other coalfields in the 1980s. In 1987 the NCB became the British Coal Corporation. With the passing of the Coal Industry Act in 1994 the industry-wide administrative functions of British Coal were transferred to a new Coal Authority, with its assets being privatised, most notably its English assets being merged with RJB Mining to form UK Coal plc. By the time of privatisation, only 15 pits were left in production.
By 1984, the British mining industry was the most productive in the world{fact}. Despite this, demand for British coal was frustrated by large subsidies that other European governments gave to their coal industries (West Germany subsidised coal by four times as much and France by three times as much in 1984) and the availability of lower cost, open-cast, coal mined in Australia and the United States.

Contents

History

NCB railways

Coal Research Establishment

See also

External links

History

Coal mines had been taken into government control during World War I and World War II. A Royal Commission in 1919 gave R.H. Tawney, Sidney Webb, and Sir Leo Chiozza Money the opportunity to publicly advocate nationalisation. Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government nationalised many industries, and the NCB was created on 1 January 1947.
The NCB saw three major national strikes. The 1972 and 1974 strikes were both over pay and both saw success for the National Union of Mineworkers. The miners' strike of 1984–1985 ended in victory for the government and is still bitterly resented in some parts of Britain.

NCB railways

The NCB operated extensive industrial railways at their collieries, employing steam traction until the late 1970s/early 1980s.

Coal Research Establishment

The NCB's research establishment at Stoke Orchard in Gloucestershire was founded in 1950 with Jacob Bronowski as Director of Research. It closed following privatisation of the coal mining industry.

See also

★ Energy policy of the United Kingdom

★ Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom

★ UK topics

External links

★ National Coal Mining Museum for England

★ Durham Mining Museum list of pits in Northern England

★ North Staffs pics

★ Scottish Mining Museum

★ Big Pit: National Coal Museum - Wales