By the time I was born in the 1960s, oil, followed by natural gas, had become the mainstay of home heating.
But still a pall of smoke hung over the older houses in Canterbury, where I grew up. I still associate visits to my grandparents in a Nottinghamshire mining town with an acrid smell that pervaded the countryside for miles.

At that time, five-sixths of the world’s coal was mined and used in Britain. At the industry’s peak in 1913, there were 3,024 deep mines in operation which produced 292 million tons of coal and employed 1.1 million miners.

A proposed coal mine at Whitehaven, Cumbria, which was granted the go-ahead by the Government in December, was bitterly opposed by climate-change protesters, in spite of the fact it will not be producing coal for power stations or open fires, only coking coal for steel-making.

osses. “Even if Bakhmut falls, the Russian invasion will fall well short of seizing control of Donetsk Oblast, one of its main territorial objectives”, the Washington-based Hudson Institute said in its latest milita

The visuals are the work of San Francisco-based photographer , 31, who was inspired to visit the remote country after watching Lord of the Rings as a child, with the trilogy filmed on both the North and South islands. 

Did he have a favourite location? Shainblum said it was tough to pick one, but that Milford Sound – a fiord in the southwest of the South Island – made a big impression with its ‘striking cliffs’ and ‘pouring’ 1,000ft waterfalls. 

‘The range of things you can see in a day in New Zealand is pretty interesting, from the lush rainforest to the high ridge peaks to the lone oak trees just kind of sitting out on the fields, and to the seascapes. Just beautiful, dramatic, striking seascapes.’ 

Their eighth defeat this side of the World Cup, their fifth in the league, with the others coming in the Coupe de France and the Champions League, has awoken those to join the lengthening queue lining up to lambast the club – with the players and ownership on the receiving end this time.

In his Easter message, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said today: ‘Easter Sunday gives us a chance to reflect on the considerable contribution Christian communities make to our national life – offering support and a sense of belonging to so many across the country.

Meanwhile, reading summer Pope Francis appeared to ask Russians to seek the truth about their country’s invasion of Ukraine in his Easter message to the world on Sunday and appealed for dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians following recent violence.

A carpet of 38,000 flowers donated by the Netherlands bedecked the square for the most important and joyous date in the Church’s liturgical calendar – commemorating the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead. 

‘It was churches and monasteries compelled by the living Christ who spent years before 1998 secretly, at huge risk, building the bridges that opened the way for the first ceasefires and considerations of peace,’ Mr Welby said.

When it came to his favourite location in New Zealand, Shainblum said it was tough to pick one but Milford Sound – a fiord in the southwest of the South Island – made a big impression with its ‘striking cliffs’ and ‘pouring’ 1,000ft waterfalls

In 1974, there were still a quarter of a million miners employed in Britain. A decade later, it was down to 130,000, when Arthur Scargill made his fateful decision to take on a much better prepared Conservative government led by Mrs Thatcher.

oscow. As spring arrives, the two armies are deadlocked with troops stretching from the shores of the Black Sea to northeast Ukraine — and the Kremlin has once again been forced to take the long view after failing to make a bre

There, from the same spot where he first appeared to the world as pope on the night of his election in 2013, he spoke of ‘the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped’, and prayed to God for peace.

Climate change forced former supporters of the industry into a rapid about-turn, to the point that some now see coal-mining as a crime against humanity, rather than the beating heart of the working class.

Without it, industrialisation would rapidly have stalled as Britain ran out of water power for its mills and charcoal for its iron production. While coal picked up on the foreshore in County Durham had been shipped to London since medieval times, it was the greedy furnaces of the industrial North in the late 18th Century that really sparked off the industry.

nable. Kofman said he believed that “the Russian military likely has the manpower and reserves to mount a stubborn defence” against a Ukrainian counter-offensive, with “minefields and trenches” at its

The archbishop said that ‘those who oppress and subjugate others will face divine justice’ and that while ‘cruel and oppressive rulers’ may look as though they are only becoming stronger, they will ‘vanish’.

Princess Anne, Prince Edward and the Duchess of Edinburgh are all expected to attend will attend the service at St George’s Chapel, while the Princess of Wales has also reportedly organised an Easter egg hunt for the royal children.