A FORMER miner turned filmmaker is looking to ‘set the record straight’ with his latest documentary.

Dave Cherry, who worked down the pit for more than 30 years, said he was spurred on to make the film after a recent documentary ‘Mrs Thatcher Vs The Miners’ - which he deems ‘pure fantasy’ and offensive to ex-miners.

Dave, 75, of Saxon Crescent, Worsbrough, starts filming on Tuesday and has also amassed archive footage to back up his theories that pit closures, the selling off of old mining land and the recently-disclosed miners’ penison scheme scandal were all planned as early as 1977.

Former BBC Radio Sheffield presenter Andy Kershaw has agreed to provide commentary, with National Union of Mineworkers officials involved.

“I will concentrate on the Worsbrough valley with the six pits,” said Dave.

“Barrow Colliery with its coking plant, Platts Common, Rockingham with the Birdwell Central Workshops, Tankersley, Pilley and Cortonwood.

“As a social historian, I don’t take the news as read - it was the right wing press in those days, that was pumping this stuff out day after day.

“My theory is that they closed the pits so there were no miners and no union, they grabbed taxpayers’ land, and then finally took away the pension fund.

“The amount of planning for housing and retail estates is breathtaking.

“It looks as if Hoyland will double in size.

“The town will be saturated and most of it on the old colliery sites.”