Emil's Blog
Thu 25th September 2014 | Atherton Collieries | By Ian Templeman
The Miners United
A week last Sunday my wife Emma put her foot down. She didn’t want to sit in the house drinking endless cup of tea/glasses of wine just checking facebook in synchronisation on our respective I pads. We went to the cinema in Leigh instead and from a rather limited selection happened on a film called ‘Pride’.
It was based on a true story about a group of lesbians and gays in London who supported a Welsh pit village financially during the miner’s strike of 1984. It was a cracking and uplifting flick despite the subject matter being heavy, I must admit I did shed the odd tear.
It got me reminiscing about one of my favourite film of all time, "Brassed Off", which was also about the infamous dispute between British Coal backed by Thatcher and the NUM. I cry buckets watching this one and am steadfastly on the side of the miners. Then again I couldn’t be anything else.
My granddad worked on the coalface at the Chanters Colliery one of the six Atherton pits, and then there is my beloved football team which was formed in 1916 by the pit owners as recreation for their workers. The final mine in Atherton closed in 1966 so doing the maths, when the club celebrates it’s century in 2016 it will be 50 years since there was the industry bearing it’s name in the town.
The club hasn’t had anywhere as much success in the second half of its life compared to the first but it did take the bold step to move out of the Bolton Combination in the early 1970s. The club was no longer a big fish in an always competitive little pond.
The decision to vacate the local footballing landscape has never been regretted although there have been a fair amount of fallow periods over the ensuing years. There have also been times over the last twenty years when we actually wondered was all the effort worth it.
A passage in a 90s Clitheroe programme summed it up perfectly. It went something like this ‘Atherton Colls suffer from the joint evil of apathy and vandalism and they do very well to survive’. There were the times when we were went to the ground with our hearts in our mouths wondering what part of the ground had the vandals wreaked havoc on this time. We couldn’t improve the ground as we were always repairing it.
In fact, in 2006 the towel was on the verge of being thrown in until a discreet appeal in the town gained us vital helpers, whose input has been the platform for us to slowly but surely rejuvenate the club.
We are proud of our coal mining heritage just like our neighbours at Howe Bridge FC will be with their link to the ‘Mills’. Another example of an industry synonymous with the town which is unlikely to return.
I apologise for being maudlin, but the film got me thinking. I never worked down a mine, and honestly it wouldn’t be on my occupation bucket list, but these proud hard men who saw their Saturday football fix as an escape from their weekday danger built the club.
We wear the Collieries badge with pride and will do so for ever, in tribute to these brave souls who made the club feared back in the day.
Remember - the miners united will never be defeated!
Emil's Blog
Thu 25th September 2014 | Atherton Collieries
By Ian Templeman
The Miners United
A week last Sunday my wife Emma put her foot down. She didn’t want to sit in the house drinking endless cup of tea/glasses of wine just checking facebook in synchronisation on our respective I pads. We went to the cinema in Leigh instead and from a rather limited selection happened on a film called ‘Pride’.
It was based on a true story about a group of lesbians and gays in London who supported a Welsh pit village financially during the miner’s strike of 1984. It was a cracking and uplifting flick despite the subject matter being heavy, I must admit I did shed the odd tear.
It got me reminiscing about one of my favourite film of all time, "Brassed Off", which was also about the infamous dispute between British Coal backed by Thatcher and the NUM. I cry buckets watching this one and am steadfastly on the side of the miners. Then again I couldn’t be anything else.
My granddad worked on the coalface at the Chanters Colliery one of the six Atherton pits, and then there is my beloved football team which was formed in 1916 by the pit owners as recreation for their workers. The final mine in Atherton closed in 1966 so doing the maths, when the club celebrates it’s century in 2016 it will be 50 years since there was the industry bearing it’s name in the town.
The club hasn’t had anywhere as much success in the second half of its life compared to the first but it did take the bold step to move out of the Bolton Combination in the early 1970s. The club was no longer a big fish in an always competitive little pond.
The decision to vacate the local footballing landscape has never been regretted although there have been a fair amount of fallow periods over the ensuing years. There have also been times over the last twenty years when we actually wondered was all the effort worth it.
A passage in a 90s Clitheroe programme summed it up perfectly. It went something like this ‘Atherton Colls suffer from the joint evil of apathy and vandalism and they do very well to survive’. There were the times when we were went to the ground with our hearts in our mouths wondering what part of the ground had the vandals wreaked havoc on this time. We couldn’t improve the ground as we were always repairing it.
In fact, in 2006 the towel was on the verge of being thrown in until a discreet appeal in the town gained us vital helpers, whose input has been the platform for us to slowly but surely rejuvenate the club.
We are proud of our coal mining heritage just like our neighbours at Howe Bridge FC will be with their link to the ‘Mills’. Another example of an industry synonymous with the town which is unlikely to return.
I apologise for being maudlin, but the film got me thinking. I never worked down a mine, and honestly it wouldn’t be on my occupation bucket list, but these proud hard men who saw their Saturday football fix as an escape from their weekday danger built the club.
We wear the Collieries badge with pride and will do so for ever, in tribute to these brave souls who made the club feared back in the day.
Remember - the miners united will never be defeated!
