On this anniversary we take the opportunity to to look back on the years under its control: an industry which gave many Wigan men work but which also took lives through accidents and coal-related illnesses, and which was sometimes in dispute over pay, conditions and closures.
5.
Some of the first miners back to work on Wednesday 21st of March 1979 just 3 days after the underground explosion which eventually killed 10 of their colleagues at Golborne Colliery.
6.
Golborne Colliery in December 1984.
7.
Chairman of the National Coal Board, Lord Robens, with workers during a visit to Kirkless Hall Coal and Iron Company in 1967. The factory in Cale Lane, New Springs, produced iron from 280 coke ovens at its peak.
8.
Joe Gormley (who lived in Shevington) President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), during the annual TUC (Trades Union Congress) conference in Blackpool, UK, September 1973. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)