Quote Originally Posted by RickyR View Post
Have to be honest, as someone that comes from Doncaster (very close to goldthorpe) and a mining area, the area has never recovered from the mines closing. I don't blame that on Thatcher, times change. Pretty much all other industry in the area has collapsed as well.
There is work in sandwich factories, call centres and distribution centres, but aside from that there isn't much more.
Last time I was in Doncaster, I found the area to be incredibly depressing, scruffy depressed looking people, shuffling around. Travel not so far way to Leeds, Harrogate, York etc and things do seem much better.

I chose to move away for work, and recently the possibility of moving back arose, Humber Pilots were recruiting and I'd probably had a good chance at the job, but I know that living in Humberside/South Yorkshire isn't easy now, but house prices are superb....
I grew up in the area too. I was born in London, but my parents moved me to Scunthorpe when I was a baby (Father got a job at the steelworks - another example of a declined industry), we then moved a rural village called Westwoodside near Epworth when I was a teenager. Yep, Doncaster is a pretty depressing area, but to be honest no different to other areas with similar backgrounds. You get the same thing across the world - where towns once prospered and then fell into a state of 'disrepair'. Even in the UK you can see examples where the woollen mills were during the industrial revolution.

RickyR - have you tried Robin Hood International Airport? sounds posh until you realise it is Finningley :-)