Today many of the buildings associated with them, such as the miners' homes and pit head engine houses, have gained a new life as sought-after cottages.

But the clues always remain.

For example, the village of St Martins, in the far north west of the county near Oswestry, grew up around Ifton Colliery, once the largest coal mine in Shropshire.

Originally sunk in the 19th Century, the pit employed more than 1,300 men at its peak, but closed in 1968 due to underground fire problems and the loss of its markets.

The site of the pit was cleared and is now an industrial estate, but just a brief look around the village reveals its history. There's an imposing miners' social club building, built in 1932, on the main road running through the village, and the site of the mine is easy to find - it's on Colliery Road!

Some of the mine buildings remain at the pit head, although they are on private land. These include the pithead baths and the office block, and a small coal tub mounted on rails acts as a memorial to the mine.

Just about everywhere you go in Shropshire, there is some connection with mines and mining.

Coal deposits dot the county, with coalfields around Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Coalbrookdale, the Wyre Forest and the Clee Hills.

Metal deposits were mined at Llanymynerch and in a large swathe of south west Shropshire, with copper mines at Clive and nearby Weston, as well as Eardiston and Harmer Hill.

Overhead mining for barite - then known as barytes - in Sallies Mine in 1946

Limestone was mined at Lilleshall and elsewhere in the county.

In all, from the mining heyday in the Victorian era to the 1960s, when most of the collieries closed, there were more than 80 mines in Shropshire.

And each had its own band of men who worked underground in terrible conditions - pit ponies and children were the norm - its own community, and its own tales of tragedy.

The 'nine men of Madeley' tomb in St Michael's churchyard

Accidents were so common as to be a part of life - at the Brick Kiln Leasow Pit in Madeley, for example, in 1864, nine men and boys died when a hoist failed. Their grave can still be seen at St Michael's Church, Madeley.

Although the Coalbrookdale coalfield did not have the big mining disasters that other areas did, thousands of lives were still lost in individual accidents and working in any mine was inherently dangerous. It's hardly surprising that - faced with grim conditions and frequent accidents - the mining communities were very religious.

Death could come from a roof fall, a fire, invisible yet deadly accumulations of gas, or people falling down shafts or winding accidents. Lodgebank Colliery was renamed 'Slaughter Pit' after 1875 when 11 men were killed by gas.

And deaths by accidents were not restricted to the miners themselves, or to when the mines were open. There have been several cases of children falling down old shafts or unwary explorers entering disused mine entrances only to be overcome by gas.

It should also be mentioned that care should still be taken when looking around old mining sites today, as many sites are still dangerous for the unwary.