This month marks the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike in 1984 and I have to admit I missed the boat on that as I did not get my first proper camera until 1986 (the strike ended in 1985) and I was not particularly interested in politics at the time.

But, having said that that, I did witness the aftermath when pits were closed initially when I was freelancing for the Star series free weekly papers during my time on the photojournalism course in Sheffield.

During my time in Sheffield I freelanced for the papers and got my first shifts, covering for the holiday breaks of the staff photographers, for which I was eternally grateful. I did a final shift in July 1992 before I started as a staff photographer at the North West Evening Mail.

During that week I covered a story about the dereliction of houses in former pit villages in County Durham where concerned local resident Don Tapping pointed out some of the damage caused to empty properties by vandals on the Southside estate in Easington Colliery.

And when I was back in my hometown of South Shields in 1994 I was walking past the site of Westoe pit which was due to be demolished and I managed to talk my way in to get these shots of the tower crashing to the ground. And it was good to see former workers there to record the event.

Having said that the site of the former colliery was later redeveloped and a new housing estate more than 10 years later.