Doncaster at Work
Regular price
€19.99
Doncaster has always benefited from its location. It stands on the Great North Road, superseded by the A1, the primary route for all traffic from London to Edinburgh, and due to its strategic geographical importance it emerged as an industrial centre in the mid-nineteenth century. Beneath the town lies a huge coal seam and it was this that prompted Doncaster’s exponential population growth. In the early part of the twentieth century Doncaster became one of the largest coal mining areas in the country, with the industry becoming one of the most significant local employers.
Doncaster at Work explores the life of the town and its people, from pre-industrial beginnings through to the present day. In a fascinating series of photographs and illustrations it takes us through the rise of the coal industry and the town’s role as a major railway engineering centre, the closure of several collieries in the mid-1980s and subsequent loss of many other tertiary industries, and into the twenty-first century as the town’s fortunes have changed with the redevelopment and rejuvenation of its centre.
Paul Chrystal was educated at the Universities of Hull and Southampton where he took degrees in Classics and wrote his MPhil thesis on attitudes to women in Roman love poetry. He appears regularly on BBC local radio the World Service as well as publishing features for national newspapers and history magazines. He has been history advisor for a number of York tourist attractions and is the author of many books on a wide range of subjects, including histories of northern places focussing on Yorkshire, social histories of tea, chocolate and confectionery and various aspects of classical literature and Roman history. Paul lives near York and is married with three grown up children.