BBC Bargain Hunt visited Newark's open air antiques fair for its latest episode - pitting two teams against one another to see who could make the most money at auction.
Each team got £300 to buy three items, one of which had to cost at least £75. But while the contestants were busy picking out their buys, expert Eric Knowles visited Bestwood Country Park and was left stunned by a former miner's story.
The episode saw the red team of Simon and Andy, two retired firefighters who have known each other for 52 years, take on the blue team. The blues were Ferzana, a leadership development manager who loves art deco and Kathleen, a performance poet who met her friend at a poetry workshop. While both teams admitted to having limited knowledge of auctions, it was the red team who claimed theirs was: "Between low and none existent."
And so it proved correct, with Simon and Andy making a loss of £63, while their opponents Kathleen and Ferzana made £58.
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Meanwhile, at Bestwood Country Park, Eric heard stories from Bob Gow, who has a special connection to the site as he worked at the colliery as a young man. Talking about his time at the mine, Bob said: "It was a very challenging industry to work in, some very physical hard work, but from my point of view as an engineer it was hugely interesting. During my lifetime, the industry went through a phenomenal change in mechanisation."
On the risks of working down a mine, Bob commented: "There were dangers, in the case of flue falls, a lot of high powered machinery in very confined spaces. If you weren't on your guard you'd soon get yourself into troubled...it was a hands and knees job on the faces here."
Antique expert and presenter Eric then asked Bob to take him through a usual day working at Bestwood: "I'd wander up the village at six o'clock, go into the pit, once at the pit bottom we would get into the loco and that would pull 120 men two and a half miles down the road."
To the astonishment of Eric, Bob continued: "The pit, at one time, went down as far as Calverton, five miles away."
Mines are renowned for being hot and dirty places of work, with Bob telling viewers that: "The last coal face I worked in at Thorsby, the temperatures would reach 40 degrees."
This meant miners would have to drink four pints of water each shift to keep hydrated. Bestwood was the first deep mine in the world to produce one million tonnes of coal in a year, but fell into disrepair after being shut in 1967.
Now, all that remains is the Winding Engine House after it was completely renovated by volunteers.
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