Bolton. “You’ve not seen the new works at Stacks Gate, opened after the War, have you Sir Clifford? Oh you must go one day, they’re something quite new: great big chemical works at the pithead, doesn’t look a bit like a colliery. They say they get more money out of the chemical byproducts than out of the coal⁠—I forget what it is. And the grand new houses for the men, fair mansions! Of course it’s brought a lot of riffraff from all over the country. But a lot of Tevershall men got on there, and doin’ well, a lot better than our own men. They say Tevershall’s done, finished: only a question of a few more years, and it’ll have to shut down. And New London’ll go first. My word, won’t it be funny, when there’s no Tevershall pit working. It’s bad enough during a strike, but my word, if it closes for good, it’ll be like the end of the world. Even when I was a girl it was the best pit in the country, and a man counted himself lucky if he could get on here. Oh, there’s been some money made in Tevershall. And now the men say it’s a sinking ship, and it’s time they all got out. Doesn’t it sound awful! But of course there’s a lot as’ll never go till they have to. They don’t like these new fangled mines, such a depth, and all machinery to work them.