Kiveton Park baths are vandalised and fenced off

The other three are at Chattely Whitfield in Staffordshire, Elemore in Sunderland, and Lynemouth in Northumberland.

Paul Burke, who left school to work in Kiveton Colliery near Rotherham in 1979, told BBC News Online: "To knock the baths down is a terrible loss - would you knock a war memorial down?"

Former miner Christopher Robinson, 90, once walked home to wash off the dirt and dust when he emerged from Kiverton colliery.

He told BBC News Online: "It were a bloody horrible mucky feeling.

"I helped to build the baths myself so we could go straight out and socialise.

"They would be better kept open so that the younger generation could see what we went through."

Generation gap

Mr Burke, who worked down the pit until it closed in 1994, said: "The baths are a tribute to the miners.

"There was an explosion in the early years which killed a number of men, and I knew two people who were killed.

After the long and bloody labour disputes there was a desire to get rid of the physical reminders of the industry

Oliver Pearcey, English Heritage

"There is a great danger of the young people forgetting how the village was built up, and there is really not much community spirit left."

Despite the disappearance of England's pits, these feelings persist.

They illustrate how communities owe their existence to an industry which brought them disaster, disease, and bitter industrial dispute.

But it also brought them an identity.

Oliver Pearcey, director of conservation for English Heritage, told BBC News Online: "These sorts of concerns should be listened to, and we are putting increasing emphasis on local examples which people feel are important.

Emotional ties

"But almost everything is important now because so much has gone.

"I think there was a deliberate decision by the government and the National Coal Board to move quickly to remove the physical evidence of the coal industry.

"The structures are not attractive and they present hazards, but after the long and bloody labour disputes there was a desire to get rid of the physical reminders as quickly as possible."

Communities exist alongside disused baths

Mr Pearcey, 50, added: "There is very often a strong attachment [to the structures] because they were built by the miners themselves rather than the colliery companies."

England's former coalfield sites still present a task.

In 1996 there were 24 derelict sites in Yorkshire alone.

They were inherited by the regional development agency, "Yorkshire Forward".

Ian Bramley, head of south Yorkshire for Yorkshire Forward, told BBC News Online: "The only two structures left were the Kiveton pit head baths and a Victorian building, which had become colliery offices.

"It was a beautiful building and we spent �250,000 refurbishing it.

"But the pit baths had been gutted.

Business ventures

"Anything of any value had been stolen, and the local kids had been in smashing things up.

"The building didn't have any meaningful use, we put a steel fence around it."

Chatterly Whitfield: "Extremely important"

Although it will cost �800,000 to renovate the ruin of Kiveton baths, Yorkshire Forward's plans to demolish them have been blocked by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

David Oldroyd, community project coordinator for the Kiveton Park and Wales Community Development Trust, said: "There is a multimedia project underway which will look at how mining has affected the village.

"There is also a community radio station, and they see the pit head baths as an ideal base to expand.

"There is an identified lack of space so we are looking to put working units in there.

"There is a big ground swell of opinion saying we want to see the baths saved because they were built from the miner's wages.

"At the time, it was about the emancipation of the miners, as they had had to go home plastered in dirt."

But the interest in keeping mining memories alive is far from universal.

'Specific purpose'

At Chatterly Whitfield colliery, which closed more than 20 years ago, a mining museum was created but it failed.

Mr Pearcey said: "Chatterly Whitfield was the first mine to produce a million tonnes of coal per year, and probably the best surviving example of a colliery in England."

Lynemouth Colliery is still functioning today

At Elemore colliery, the baths were built in 1933 and funded by a miner's welfare committee.

They are now occupied by a motor parts company.

Mr Pearcey said: "Pit head baths are designed for a very specific purpose.

"There are big rooms full of lockers which are heated with an air system, which are very interesting, but useless for any other function."

Meanwhile Lynemouth colliery's pit baths, built in 1938, are designated as having "more than special interest".

They are still in use today.