At the end of the day

"There was a dignity and it was about recognising that", says photographer Ian Macdonald in relation to his image of women canteen workers at an ironworks in Redcar relaxing at the end of their shift, recently selected for the Guardian's Big Picture feature. In that respect, and also because the blast furnace closed soon afterwards, there are parallels with Mik Critchlow's photos documenting the last days of Woodhorn Colliery further north, displayed last year as part of the Coaltown exhibition at the colliery itself.

Perhaps it's misguided misty-eyed nostalgia, but it feels hard not to retrospectively impose an elegiac quality on such images. They're a reminder that such sites were critical, at the heart of both the local economy and the local community. The north east may have changed radically over the four decades since Macdonald's picture was taken, and much for the better - but there remains a sense that something was also lost.