All of these families have been involved one way or the other with mining for  coal. There have been tragedy in mines fathers, sons and friends.           Whole families effected with the deaths, cave-ins, explosions, fires and gases  poisoning. Living virtually on top of the "Pits", the only work available in  these tiny villages, sons followed their dads down the mine shafts seeing very  little daylight, eating-drinking coal dust, scrubbing their tired filthy bodies  in front of their open coal fires then sleeping till time to go back down the  mines again. Even today some of the family still work at the mines but have to  travel away from home as the nearby colleries, Cortonwood, Houghton Main,  Darfield Main, all gone. But is this a good thing or not? Villags, towns dying  without the "Pits" bringing in the Jobs and monies.