Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the closure of the Frog Lane pit, the last to operate in the South Gloucestershire coalfield.

Local historians plan to mark the occasion with a book, an exhibition, a CD and other events, and are currently busy gathering photos, press cuttings and records. One way of contacting them will be a road show from noon to 5pm on Saturday, November 29, at the Miners' Institute on Badminton Road, Coalpit Heath.

One former miner already very much on their radar is Frank Thornell, who still lives in Coalpit Heath, not far from the house where he was born in 1933, near the village pub, the Ring O'Bells.

As he had three sisters and was the only boy in the family, his mother Annie doted on him.

Frank, who is busy writing his memoirs, is proud to have grown up in the village and of being one of the fraternity of miners.

"Lady Smythe from Ashton Court owned all the land about here," he explains. "My father Charlie looked after her properties before going down the pit when he was in his 30s, and my mother later worked in the pit canteen.

"When I left school at 14, I went to work locally for ES and A Robinson, the big Bristol paper and packaging people, but about six months later my father said to me 'I think you ought to come and work down the pit'.

"It wasn't just the money, though 'driving the roads' at night – blasting ways through to the coal face for the miners – paid better than in the day. But it was hard and quite dangerous work.

"The main reason I decided to go down the pit was because a lot of my mates were starting down there. I thought I'd try it to see what it was really like.

"It could be dangerous work, but I think the miners – there were about 250 of us in all – enjoyed life in the pits.

"I had to train for six months in Old Mills, Paulton, near Radstock – we got the bus there and back every day – before I could work on the face.

"They told me how the coal seams ended at Cromall because of a fault.

"At our pit, Frog Lane, the two main seams were almost worked out, which left just the Hollybush, with poor roof conditions.

"I started out as a brickie's mate underground, but I managed to get a lot of falling stone mixed in with the cement.

"I then started helping to pull drams (tubs on wheels) of coal on and off the cage.

"I couldn't wait to get to the coal face. They were good miners, but it was difficult to find one to teach you. We had 12 pit ponies working with us, pulling the drams."

Coal mining in South Gloucestershire is first recorded back in the 13th century. Bounded by Yate and Frampton Cotterell, Coalpit Heath is now a pleasant commuter village, but until 1949 it lived up to its name on part of an extensive seam that stretched under Bristol from Cromall in the north down to Radstock in Somerset.

As technology advanced in the 18th and 19th centuries, deeper shafts were dug.

By the 1840s, the Coalpit Heath area had eight pits, all owned by Sir John Smythe of Ashton Court, who had inherited the mineral rights. By now, 65,000 tons of coal were extracted annually and sent to Bristol via a dramway – trucks drawn by horses along a track to the Avon at Keynsham – and then by water. But this lasted only nine years before a steam railway connected the pits – Mays Hill, Ram Hill, Ram Engine, Churchleaze 1 and 2, Orchard and New Engine – direct to Bristol.

Frog Lane was not sunk until 1853. As we have seen, this closed in 1949 – but it wasn't quite the end. Between 1959 and 1963, the National Coal Board operated a drift mine at Harry Stoke, though its short life tells us that it was not a success.

Today, most evidence of what went on is at Ram Hill, which still has the remains of a steam engine house, a horse gin, a mineshaft, the dramway terminus and the reservoir at Bitterwell.

Organising next year's anniversary celebrations and this Saturday's road show are South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group, Yate and District Heritage Centre and other local groups.

If you can't make the road show but would like to know more, call Steve Grudgings by phoning 07768 381502.