Pitmen's Requiem

Part history of the decline and eventual demise of the Great Northern Coalfield, part biography of Robert Saint—the Durham miner who composed the miners' hymn Gresford—this approachable chronicle illustrates the historical and social factors that affected the decline of the mining industry in Britain. It describes the story behind the brass band composition that commemorated the 256 men and boys killed in an explosion at Gresford Colliery, North Wales, in 1934 and was first performed at the Durham Miners' Gala in 1938. Interviews and reports explain how a local memorial piece became an internationally recognized hymn and shows how the lives of mining families dramatically changed as collieries closed and a way of life disappeared.