Now, in his retirement, he has published the second volume of a detailed history of his place of birth – the former pit village of Fryston, near Castleford, West Yorkshire.
“It’s my sense of responsibility and privilege to tell the story on behalf of the people of Fryston, Castleford, and the Yorkshire coalfield,” he says. “There’s a heritage there that belongs to the nation, as well as the people of Fryston.”
The recently released Pit-folk and Peers Volume 2: Diamonds and Rust (1909-2023) is described as a chronicle of Fryston’s mining heritage and its remarkable people.
The first volume, Echoes of Fryston Hall (1809-1908) was released during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and explored a rich, aristocratic history of the area in the 19th century.
The second volume continues to follow that family line as it intersects with the major political developments of the 20th century, and also follows the fortunes of the pit-folk of what was once a quintessential coal mining village.
“If you look at the importance of mining for the industrial revolution and beyond, coal mining has been a staple source of fuelling British industry, wealth and power,” says David. “We are a nation, an island, built on coal.”
His ancestors were at the heart of the industry boom, his father, uncles, grandad and other relatives all working in the coalfields. He recalls, during his adolescence in the early 1970s, a sort of political awakening.
“Miners were starting to become more assertive,” he remembers. “Arthur Scargill was coming on the scene. We were beginning to ask questions and take a bit more pride in ourselves.”
In the run up to beginning a psychology degree at university in York, David remembers watching Ken Loach’s TV serialisation Days of Hope.
The drama followed the lives of a working-class family, from the First World War to the General Strike in 1926 – the walkout of thousands of workers, which began in solidarity with miners involved in industrial dispute.
“I thought these are my folks here, this is my grandad and grandma,” David, 68, says. “And I started to develop an appreciation for what they’d done, what they’d gone through, the obstacles they’d overturned.”
He soon became fascinated by this heritage and spent around 30 years at what is now Sheffield Hallam University researching and writing on the sociology of mining communities.
In the 1980s, that work took him to picket lines and demonstrations during industrial action and has since seen him explore relations in the British coal industry and the policing of protests, as well as the regeneration of former coal mining areas.
“You’re socialised a certain way in mining towns like Castleford and villages like Fryston,” says David, who now lives in Sheffield. “There’s a mutuality there…And it was beginning to shape my identity.”
For years, he says he has felt an “emotional obligation” to highlight his hometown and its connections to the coalfields. “I always knew sooner or later, probably in retirement, that I would do these books,” he says. “This is me having an emotional connection but at the same time having tools at my disposal, a long experience of doing research in this area.”
Volume 1 of his two-part history focuses primarily on the cultural, political and philanthropic figure of Richard Monckton Milnes (the first Lord Houghton), and emphasises the significance of his Fryston Hall estate as a major hub of Victorian society. It also traces the emergence of Fryston Colliery, following its sinking in 1873, and the creation of a small, adjoining village for mineworkers and their families.
This volume switches attention onto the important political, ambassadorial and literary activities of Houghton’s son Lord Crewe. It also documents the continuing fortunes and accomplishments of the local mine and its associated community.
In the 1940s and 50s, for example, the colliery pioneered a charitable scheme providing motorised vehicles for paraplegic miners; local mineworkers built with their own hands a welfare hall and a village sports stadium; and a Fryston pit deputy was awarded the George Medal for staging a daring underground rescue.
David’s book examines such activities but also documents the often arduous, everyday reality of mining families, as well as the miners’ strike of 1984-85 and the village’s “near extinction” following the closure of Fryston Colliery in 1985.
There’s also a chapter on efforts to revitalise the area, including redevelopments that featured on Channel 4 as part of a regeneration programme called The Castleford Project.
Reflecting on the volumes, David says: “My academic career has concentrated primarily on aspects of mining and the industry – the struggles, the strikes and also the nature of community, the demise of community and the regeneration of it.
“In many ways, these books on Fryston are the final pages, the culmination of a personal and academic journey over many years.”
– Pit-folk and Peers: The Remarkable History of the People of Fryston: Volume 2: Diamonds and Rust (1909-2023) by David Waddington, published by Route, is out now. A launch event will take place on Saturday, October 11 at 10.30am at Holy Cross Church, Airedale.