It's been nearly 30 years since women worked hauling coal at British mines, working as screen lasses, sifting through the 'black stuff' sent up top by the male miners working below.
Once, thousands of women were employed at the collieries. The conditions were hard and many of the former screen lasses are now in their seventies and eighties.
The Countryside Agency is funding a project to collect together their memories of work at the mines. Judy Merry went to Whitehaven to meet some of Cumbria's retired screen lasses.
