Chris Arnot

From the acclaimed author of Britain's Lost Cricket Grounds and Britain's Lost Breweries, comes a journey underground to the mines that built the nation and defined a century. Twenty minutes from the Regency elegance of Bath and half an hour from the Glastonbury Festival, you might notice looming over the Somerset village of Paulton what appears to be a dormant volcano. In reality it is a colliery spoil tip, and one of the few reminders that until the 1970s men worked here far beneath the green fields of England - digging for coal. Walk the clifftop path hugging the Cornish coast: those gaunt brick chimneys and wind-ravelled winding-houses are the ruins of a once vast tin-mining industry. Until very recent times hundreds of thousands of men dug deep underground - sometimes miles out under the sea - for all kinds of minerals and ores, from slate in North Wales to gold in Dorset. Their labour was the most backbreaking of all, amidst swirling dust and sweltering temperatures, and the mines they descended scarred and re-made the landscape. But the closure of Daw Mill colliery in Warwickshire in 2013 confirmed the almost total demise of this once-ubiquitous and proud industry, whose pithead baths and winding-wheels have since disappeared under retail parks, football stadia or at best become part of the heritage industry. Now, in Britain's Lost Mines, Chris Arnot seeks out thirty lost mines within Britain's shores, from Scotland to Kent, where men mined anything from fluorspar to salt, iron ore to copper, and re-discovers the unique culture that spawned brass bands and male voice choirs, terrifying fast bowlers and rock-hard rugby league players. Illustrated throughout with a stunning array of photographs, and filled with the reminiscences of the ex-miners he meets, he evokes a vanished and truly remarkable way of life for men who did not just work together, but played, sang and drank together as brothers under dust-encrusted skin, looking out for one another as they risked their lives daily. Within a generation, most of our miners will no longer be with us; this mesmerising book will help ensure their history is in no danger of being buried forever.

The Vanished Kingdom of the Men who Carved out the Nation's Wealth

Britain's Lost Mines

The first three months of 2021 were tragic times for some and interminably tedious for those fortunate enough to avoid the virus and its lethal consequences. Chris Arnot spent long hours of those miserable months writing his thirteenth book. The final chapter was finished on April 1st. Which may make foolish his fears for the future of the British pub as a treasured institution. Rather than ponder too much about that future, he decided to look back to the past - his past in eccentric ale-houses from Devon to Edinburgh as well as "locals" he has lived close to in Birmingham, London, Nottingham and Coventry. Not forgetting hostelries close to cricket grounds, from Hampshire and Sussex to Yorkshire and Northumberland. Chris has written three books on cricket and has been commissioned by national and local newspapers to write about pubs across Great Britain.

Closing Time

From county grounds where Denis Compton hit a century to the smallest village field Britain’s Lost Cricket Grounds movingly shows how picturesque greenery gave way to shopping malls and housing estates. The cricket ground is as much a part of the British landscape as the parish church. Hastings used to have a historic ground in the middle of the town surrounded by elegant houses – but then recently it disappeared under a shopping precinct with a branch of River Island where the wicket used to be. Yorkshire used to play at Sheffield’s Bramall Lane – until the football club built grandstands over it. Like so many companies with works grounds, Guinness have closed their cricket ground at Park Royal and sold it for an industrial estate. Now, in a further addition to Aurum’s successful ‘Lost’ series, following Britain’s Lost Cities and Lost Victorian Britain, Guardian journalist Chris Arnot tours the country in search of our most lamented lost cricket grounds, hearing reminiscences from former players and spectators, and finding what, if anything, is left nowadays, apart from the poignant photographs of their picturesque heyday that make this a nostalgic and rueful trip back in time.

The Hallowed Homes of Cricket That Will Never See Another Ball Bowled

Britain's Lost Cricket Grounds

Simon Frith

The Archers Archives celebrates 60 years of the nation's favourite radio drama - looking back at the most dramatic events to happen over 16,000 episodes, complete with cast and crew interviews. Relive the defining moments in Archers history, from the devastating 1955 stables fire and the 1957 Tom Forrest manslaughter charge to the shocking imprisonment of Susan Carter in the early 1990s, the revelation of Brian Aldridge's affair with Siobhan Hathaway, and the Grundys' eviction from Grange Farm and exile to Meadow Rise. Script-writer Simon Frith and journalist Chris Arnot take you inside the creative life of the show, sharing how the series' storylines are planned and produced, and how the historical and cultural background of each period is interwoven into the everyday lives of the residents of Ambridge. Complete with original photos, some never-before-seen, The Archers Archives is an indispensable addition to every Archers fan's collection.

Chris Arnot

About

Books

Join the club