Manton, Nottinghamshire
Encyclopedia
Manton is a former mining village
Pit village
A pit village is a term used in the UK for the village serving a deep coal mine.Many of the workers lived in houses that were provided by the colliery. Many villages have experienced depopulation after colliery closures forced people to move to other towns and cities where there are jobs for them...

 and suburb of south-east Worksop
Worksop
Worksop is the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about east-south-east of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated to be 39,800...

, north Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

. Manton Colliery was one of the few pits in the county to generally support the strike in 1984-5. David Peace
David Peace
David Peace is an English author. Known for his novels GB84, The Damned Utd, and Red Riding Quartet, Peace was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta in their 2003 list...

's book GB84 often refers to Manton, but mistakenly puts it in South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

.

The book describes Manton as being in South Yorkshire as it was part of the South Yorkshire coalfield and supported the National Union of Mineworkers despite being in north Nottinghamshire. Hence, it supported the strike while other pits in north Nottinghamshire did not back the strike

As one may imagine Manton's main source of employment for 100 years or thereabouts was the Colliery sunk by The Wigan Coal Company in the late 19th century.
The pit village was constructed soon afterwards to accommodate the families of miners who came from many parts of the country to secure employment. Initially there was much bickering and fighting between these "Mantoners" but in time, when the winning of coal became the main goal for all, friendships where forged between the men at work or over a well earned pint in the pub after work. Manton was initially separate from Worksop but was eventually joined to the town when the council estates where built in the 1950s and 1960s.
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