Mine craft

I am not sorry to say that I am disappointed by the sight of a passing, child filled car with all of its junior occupants either with their heads down from engagement with their i-pads or necks craned watching a dvd on a screen affixed to the back of the front seat headrests.

There is just no interest whatsover shown in their surroundings which, even on a fairly mundane trip to the shops or visiting relatives, can yield forth many fascinating things from buildings to natural phenomena, man made features and many others.

I do blame the car driving parents or accompanying adults because a child engrossed in a movie or game is not likely to ask challenging questions or utter forth any comments requiring a considered answer.

This does make for a somewhat easier travelling experience but in no way contributes to the natural aptitude of children to absorb facts and figures.

When our own children were young and seatbelted up they were positively bombarded with "look at that", "see that over there", "did you know......?, "In 1860 a man called.....", and so on and so forth with very passing mile.

On a journey from our home in East Yorkshire to Leeds, usually to go to the Ikea Furniture Store, we would see some greats sights from the Humber Suspension Bridge to the misty silhouette of the Emley Moor TV Mast.

In between, there were many more fascinating facts to be mentioned.

The emission shrouded outline of the Scunthorpe Steel Plant was visible on the skyline.

We would soon drive past the old Capper Pass Smelting Works operated by Rio-Tinto Zinc and the British Aerospace factory at Brough.

A few fishermen at Gilberdyke would be huddled under their camouflage green umbrellas with only a rod-end to be seen in a network of ponds and unfortunately for them downwind of a large domestic waste tip that, even on the stillest of days could be smelt inside the cocoon of the car.

In the distance the huge cooling towers and smoke stack of a string of power stations sent up some interesting cloud shapes which could take on the presence of Godzilla fighting with a dinosaur or a Star Wars All Terrain Armoured Transport. The inhabitants of Sweden did not however appreciate the side effects of the water vapour carrying acid rain into the forests and lakes of their part of the world.

Just beyond Eggborough was the vast complex of a deep shaft coal mine, Kellingley Colliery seen on the outward journey to Ikea on the north side of the M62 Motorway.

On the south side was a huge man made slag heap from the mine spoils of getting on then for more than 30 years of production of coal for UK industrial and domestic use. This pile of debris was gradually being seeded and planted to become an interestingly shaped hill.

The mine itself occupied a vast area with a number of towers containing the winding gear to take hundreds of miners on a continuous rota of shift working and supporting uses for cleaning and shipping the raw material by rail to every point of the compass.

It took some but worthwhile effort to explain the processes and operations of British Coal to the children notwithstanding the political and economic machinations of the 1980's strike and its breaking, supply and demand linked to cheap imports and in later years the move towards cleaner, greener energy sources.

That same trip today would be on exactly the same roads but there would be a number of huge and significant differences causing the car to be pretty well silent.

The Humber Bridge, still a momentous monument to British Engineering is not now the longest single span of its type in the world. Scunthorpe Steel Works very recently went into Receivership after decades of quality rolled steel production. Capper Pass and its landmark chimney have long since been demolished and the site given over to large warehousing and distribution buildings.

The last Hawk fighter and trainer aircraft rolled off the production line a few years ago now at the old Blackburn Factory, latterly BAe Systems.

The anglers make use of the remains of a much older land-use consisting of the old brick clay pits.

The offensive smell of the waste tip is still present but has been improved by further burying in soil and entrapment of the methane gas for incineration.

The line of power stations including Drax and Eggborough have either been converted to bio-fuel or in the latter case is to be decommissioned.

The most tragic thing is the termination of operations just this week at Kellingley Mine sounding the death knell for the Coal Industry in the proud county of Yorkshire if not throughout the nation.

Perhaps the children, head down and goggle-eyed on a journey today are just realists and their parents are, like me, struggling to hold back tears from their eyes at the demise of so many jobs and livelihoods.