Farewell to Cotia

A pit elegy written by the Durham miner-poet Jock Purdon about the closure of Harraton Colliery — the Cotia pit — in May 1965, and the exodus of its men to the Nottinghamshire coalfield. Purdon was a Bevin Boy conscripted to the pits in 1943 who spent his working life underground at Chester-le-Street, and wrote about the colliery he lost.

The mining history in this record

Harraton Colliery on the Wear was known locally as the Cotia pit, short for Nova Scotia, the name of one of its pits. The pit closed in May 1965 and many of its men migrated to the newer collieries of Nottinghamshire, the subject of the song, as pit closures spread across the Durham coalfield in the 1960s.

George 'Jock' Purdon was born at Nitshill near Glasgow in 1925, in a former mining village whose own pit had closed before he grew up. When his call-up came the last digit of his National Service number sent him not into the army, where his elder brother had gone and been killed in France in 1944, but into the pits: he was among the first contingent of Bevin Boys designated on 14 December 1943. He married and stayed at Chester-le-Street, and dug coal in three-foot seams with water at times up to his knees.

That is the vantage the song is written from. Purdon's verses were about the pits and the politics inseparable from them — he coined the word 'pitracide', to murder a pit for economic reasons — and about the community the work made. Other songs of his include The Easington Explosion, on the deaths of eighty-one miners in a single accident, and Hally's Piebald Galloway, on the loss of the Lumley pit banner to a hungry pony.

People

George 'Jock' Purdon (16 November 1925 – 1998), known as the miners' poet. Born at Nitshill near Glasgow, conscripted to the coal mines as a Bevin Boy in December 1943, and a miner at Chester-le-Street for the rest of his working life. He performed for striking miners during the 1984-85 strike and appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in the Concert for Heroes in 1986. Six of his songs appear in A. L. Lloyd's collection Come All Ye Bold Miners; he published Songs of the Durham Coalfield in 1977 and an album of poems and songs, Pitworks, Politics & Poetry.

Jack Elliott of Birtley, the other great songmaker associated with the Cotia pit, is commemorated alongside Purdon on the remade Cotia banner.

Legacy today

In 2004 the Cotia banner — itself the subject of one of Purdon's songs — was remade and carried to the Durham Miners' Gala, with pictures of Purdon and Jack Elliott on the back. It was unfurled by Tony Benn, an admirer of Purdon's work. The song has also drawn academic attention as an example of the pit elegy, a form that grew up in the English folk revival around the closures that followed nationalisation.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Jock Purdon wrote Farewell to Cotia about the closure of Harraton Colliery and the exodus of its miners to Nottinghamshire. (documented fact) ^1,2
• Harraton Colliery was always known as the 'Cotia, short for Nova Scotia, the name of one of its pits. (documented fact) ^1,3
• Purdon was among the first contingent of men designated for the mines on 14 December 1943 under the ballot that sent one man in ten to the pits rather than the forces. (documented fact) ⁴
• In 2004 the Cotia banner, the subject of another of Purdon's songs, was remade and carried to the Durham Miners' Gala with pictures of Purdon and the Birtley singer Jack Elliott on the back; it was unfurled by Tony Benn. (documented fact) ⁴
• Harraton Colliery, the 'Cotia pit, produced two of the leading songwriters of the folk revival, Jack Elliott and Jock Purdon, whose best-known songs lamented pit closures. (documented fact) ²
• Purdon was a deputy at Harraton Colliery when he wrote the song, and put it up in the pithead baths. (unverified claim, uncertain) ³

Mines

• Harraton Colliery — Tyne and Wear
  The song is about the closure of this colliery — known locally as the Cotia pit — in May 1965 and the migration of its men to the Nottinghamshire coalfield.

Real-world mining concepts used here

Coal, Colliery

Related Culture records

• Durham Miners' Gala
  The remade Cotia banner, with Jock Purdon's picture on the back, was carried to the Gala in 2004.
• The Big Hewer
  Jock Purdon's song on the closing of Harraton Colliery, the Elliotts' pit.

Sources

1. (secondary) Harraton — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) After Coal: Meanings of the Durham Miners' Gala (Frontiers in Sociology, 2020) — Frontiers in Sociology
3. (secondary) Mudcat Café: Origins: What is this MacColl coal mining song? (post of 8 June 2024) — Mudcat Café
4. (secondary) Jock Purdon — Wikipedia

Record created: 3 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 September 2026