Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 9, 1995                   TAG: 9509110009
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIRK BEVERIDGE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ARKWRIGHT TOWN, ENGLAND                                 LENGTH: Medium

COAL MOVES TINY TOWN, BUT CAN ITS SPIRIT FOLLOW?

At the rate of about one a day, the old brick coal-company row houses are being boarded up as families leave.

Half the homes are empty already. The rest soon will follow as the 400 residents of Arkwright Town move across the road into a brand-new town, with the same name, being built by RJB Mining Ltd.

Then, the original Arkwright Town will be knocked down to make way for a strip mine, possibly the last gasp of economic activity in a worked-over chunk of coal country that once helped make Britain great.

It remains to be seen whether this unusual move is the death of a coal village or a rebirth.

Avis Briddon, 49, is tired of sitting in a shabby living room, equipped with a meter to monitor explosive methane gas that began seeping into many village houses when British Coal closed the local mine in 1988.

Briddon shudders at what might have happened if a spark had set off the methane.

``We all would've been dead with a capital D,'' she says, resting on an old couch piled high with clothes ready to be moved.

``We're just sitting on a time bomb, really. It holds lots of memories, but I'll be glad to get away from all the worrying.''

Most of Arkwright Town, 120 miles north of London, was evacuated before the mine could be reventilated and the people could return. They've spent the last seven years in limbo, living in homes that nobody would buy and waiting for the new town that authorities promised.

When RJB paid 815 million pounds - about $1.22 billion - in 1994 for the English operations of British Coal as the government disbanded the old state-run coal giant, it agreed to honor the commitment to move Arkwright Town.

``It was a liability that was picked up from British Coal,'' said RJB's projects manager, David Alston. RJB originally thought the new town would cost 15 million pounds, or $22.5 million, but the price grew to around 21 million pounds, or $31.5 million, because of unexpected work shoring up the house foundations.

Some residents are angry, even though they are moving into nicer homes with all modern conveniences and no increases in rent and mortgage payments.

Cliff Davidson, 78, who spent 49 years in the mines only to be retired with a payout of 500 pounds, or $750, starts shouting when asked about the fate of his birthplace.

He grabbed some coins to make his point.

``These people - when we're gone - they've got that in their pocket and they're millionaires,'' Davidson said, breathing heavily from the black-lung disease he picked up from decades in the coal pits. ``That's it. They want to kick us down to get that black stuff out.''

RJB Mining plans to extract 4 million tons of coal from the strip mine but won't say how much money it hopes to make. RJB calls the deal good both for the villagers and the company.

``It's just sad to move,'' said Davidson's wife of 55 years, Olive, who has lived in the same little house since 1924. ``We're in the last un's,'' she added in a voice laced with Derbyshire twang.

She walks with a cane and acknowledged her new house will be easier to negotiate because it is on one level.

``Another thing - we're going on gas so we won't have to make fire,'' she said.

Often, when towns are erased from the map by new highways, airports or other projects that developers call progress, residents are given payments and told to settle where they will. Local officials rejected this approach, citing a strong community spirit in Arkwright Town.

Some who have crossed the road predict the soul of Arkwright Town will stay behind after the house moving ends in December.

Terry and Norma Dolby had a hard time finding their old house key when they had to turn it in to claim their new home. They hadn't locked their doors in years. In the new house, they lock up.

As the locals move, they are paid 2,850 pounds, or $4,275, to buy new household goods.

Many locals never had so much money all at once. Norma Dolby believes it's making some old neighbors more materialistic and less neighborly.

Gladys Dorene Watkinson, 76, said she's having a ball spending the money, buying Fred Astaire videotapes.

``I spent 500 pounds on a video and telly,'' she said. ``And it's MINE!''