In the 1980s they called it “magic Manton” – the tiny pit village, in the heart of the Nottinghamshire coalfields, that churned out so much coal it set national records. It went to war with Margaret Thatcher in 1984 and lost, closing 10 years later at the expense of 1,400 jobs.
Today the village is unrecognisable. Workers wearing hi-vis vests walk to the area’s biggest employers, Wilko and B&Q, whose huge distribution centre sits on the site of the dead colliery. It is no longer difficult to find Conservative voters in places like Manton, a radical shift from only a few years ago.
