IntroductionThe Northern Mine Research Society is a group of people dedicated to the preservation and recording of mining history, Northern referring to the Society's administrative base rather than its field of interest. It started as the Northern Cavern and Mine Research Society in 1960, but its members' increasing interest in mining led the Society to change its original name to the present title in 1975. Now one of the largest such organizations in Britain, the Society has hundreds of members countrywide and many overseas. Reflecting this, British Mining is Britain's foremost mining history publication.The Society is a founder member of the National Association of Mining History Organisations, which acts as a forum for discussion and dissemination of information on all matters of pertinence to its members, with the aim of furthering the study of mining history in all its aspects.