MINER TOOK HIS OWN LIFE AFTER REDUNDANCY
A COAL boss killed himself just a few months after being told he was losing his job, an inquest has heard.
Simon Wood was on his way back from his mother’s funeral last year when received a call from a workmate that the opencast site he worked at in Hirwaun had been closed.
The 52-year-old “gentle giant”, who had worked in the industry for decades, was found dead by his partner Kay Tootill at their home in Pontardawe, Swansea.
The pair were planning to get married in the autumn.
She said: “We didn’t have money worries. The coal industry was on its knees, but Simon hoped it would take him to retirement.
“Not only did I lose someone I love dearly, it was me that found him, and that will be with me until my dying day.
“I’ve been through every emotion except anger. I just can’t be angry with him.”
Originally from Coventry, Mr Wood worked in the coal industry for decades, most recently at the former Tower Colliery site in Hirwaun where he took a job as site manager in 2013.
Tower Colliery closed in 2008, but two years later permission was given to extract a further 5.8 million tonnes of shallow coal at the opencast Tower Surface Mine.
“He was offered a job with the coal authority three years ago on the pen-pushing side of things. He didn’t take the position because he was more at home with his size 12 Doc Martens on the dashboard of his Land Rover,” said Ms Tootill.
On the way back from his mother’s funeral in November 2018, Mr Wood had a call from a colleague saying “someone had gone in and shut the site down”, in the two days he had been away.
In the following weeks, Mr Wood had to “lay some of the lads off, but didn’t know that within weeks everyone would be following,” added Ms Tootill.
Despite the shock of losing his mother and his job in quick succession, Ms Tootill “suspected absolutely nothing” was wrong, and the couple were engaged in January.
However, three months later he failed to collect Ms Tootill from work.
She thought he “might have been on his phone or having a telephone interview” when she couldn’t reach him but arrived home to find her beloved partner dead.
Ms Tootill said kindness from people in the local community had brought her a great deal of comfort.
She added she and Mr Wood considered themselves “honorary Welsh people” and fell in love with the Swansea Valley.
Mr Wood’s funeral was attended by colleagues from the mining industry. “It was surreal seeing 6ft miners expressing their wishes so emotionally, but mining is a way of life,” added Ms Tootill.
Swansea coroner’s office recorded a case of suicide for Mr Wood’s death.
Mr Wood is survived by his two children from a previous marriage.
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