Features

You'll see how the faces, the shops, and the industries have changed.

Life after coal

Twenty-five years ago, the East Midlands' collieries employed more than 25,000 miners. Now just 2,000 men work underground.

Mining pits are disappearing

The closures sucked the lifeblood out of towns and villages which depended on their pits. 

Barry Pembleton, who worked at Bolsover Colliery for well over 30 years, told me how shops and factories also closed, because they relied on the pits.

"My grandson asked me 'Where were Bolsover pit?' And I don't think he knows what a pit means. Future generations, what are they going to do? That spirit's still there, but the way of life -- it's gone." 

Now people are moving to Bolsover to commute, or even retire.  Attracted by the community spirit, and cheaper property prices.  Mick Reed came from Peckham in South London, looking for somewhere peaceful and quiet. "Bolsover fitted the bill" -- he told me -- "I thought there would be an awful lot of trouble with me being a Southerner...but there was none at all".

Rob Stokes commutes 58 miles to Birmingham, where's he a retail manager.  "I wouldn't even consider moving to Birmingham, I like where I live", he says.  "The environment's nice. It's quiet. The people are friendly. "

The landlord of the Blue Bell Pub thinks the town shouldn't dwell on its mining past. Kevin Maidens told me "200 yards away from here is a really fantastic castle that's a real tourist attraction. Now we ought to be making Bolsover a tourist area".

New arrivals

In the inner cities, it is the faces that have changed.  And the shops, which adapt to meet changing demands of new immigrant communities.  On streets like Radford Road in Nottingham (and Narborough Road in Leicester, and Normanton Road in Derby).

People used to move here from countries with colonial links to Britain: migrant workers from the Caribbean to Pakistan, then refugees and asylum seekers from Zimbabwe to Iraq. 

Shops in Hyson Green

The most recent arrivals come from Eastern Europe.  There are several new businesses which cater for Polish migrant workers.  But some of the shopkeepers have never been to Poland. They're Kurdish refugees, who escaped from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and simply spotted a gap in the market.

Khalid Omar Ali named his supermarket "Warszawa", after Poland's capital city.  And there are Polish signs on Mohammed Ibrahim's barber's shop.  His business is called "Halabja" -- the city where Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds, and where Mohammed used to live.

But Mohammed doesn't only have Polish customers.  He also met his Polish wife here.  And he told me that many of his friends have married Polish girlfriends too.

Wladek Bigos has run a Polish butcher's shop on Radford Road for 30 years.  He told me business is booming: "There's a big demand for Polish food. Turnover increased by 100%. We're doing okay at the moment, but how long for we don't know as many Poles we know want to go home."

But there have been losers as well as winners here.  Bob Bailey's "homemaker" shop repairs fridges and washing machines.  He says "nowadays it's a throwaway society. The repair side's basically gone down. It's a long time since business showed a profit. I would think, two or three years time, the road will be mainly coffee-type bars"

The Future

But the biggest changes have been in Leicester.  A city that is often seen as a model of multi-culturalism.  With one of the country's most established Indian communities and a  growing new Somali community. Now city leaders are focussing on how to improve integration between different communities, and stopping them drifting apart.

Leicester school children

But the councillor in charge of community cohesion is worried because increasing numbers of Hindu families appear to be abandoning their local city schools, in an echo of so-called "white flight". 

Councillor Abdul Osman is the city's deputy leader.  He told me: "We've got Hindu communities going out in the county for better education. And that's becoming more and more apparent...the Muslim communities are more concentrated within the city, and sending their kids there.  And I think that's a challenge and that's something we have to deal with".

Schools like Shenton Primary are on the front line.  About 90% of its pupils are Muslims.  So it's one of 20 city schools which are going be twinned with schools from different parts of Leicester to encourage children with different racial and religious backgrounds to mix.  It's called the Schools Linking Network and was first set up in Bradford after the race riots.

The head teacher, Gita Patel, told me: "They need to see themselves as part of a much wider community.  They're members of a local community. But they're also members of a city, of the country. And I think it's important that they get that sense of belonging...I see children playing with other children. I see them sharing experiences. Sharing activities. Sharing knowledge about each other".

Nine year old Ismaaeel Khalifa agrees: "I thought it would be nice to learn from other people's cultures. They could blend in with other people, and they could make friends".