You’ve probably heard of hamlets being sold off; a scattering of dilapidated houses, but this article deals with a whole mining town.

Ciñera de Gordón, in León, has 128 single-family dwellings, 12 flats, a football ground, swimming pool, supermarket, cinema, restaurant and a medical centre… plus two mines with thousands of tonnes of coal waiting to be brought up… oh and 819 inhabitants, who are not for sale .

How much? A piffling 122 million euros.

Most of the inhabitants are very elderly and have spent their working lives in the mine, or married to somebody who was, and they survive on inadequate pensions which rules out being able to purchase their own houses from the mining company.

It was Franco – bless his cotton dictatorial socks – that confiscated land next to the mines some 50 years ago for miner housing and until the introduction of the euro, families paid 130 Pesetas a month in rent. For those of you who don’t remember the Peseta, that’s about 80 Euro Cents.

But La Vasco mining company went bust about a year ago, leaving 800 workers redundant and owing 51m euros – it is at presently in receivership.

The Junta de Castilla y León finally acted and bought some of the houses for 1.1m euros, giving the tenants the option of buying their own homes at 50% of the price that the Junta paid for them.

León is going the same way as the post-industrial mining areas of Britain and Germany – the population dwindles in these high-unemployment black holes. The population there has dropped by 40% in the last 15 years.

This particular mining town has beautiful surroundings; on the nearby mountains there is a spreading ash forest, which is considered one of the most beautiful in the whole of Spain. Yes, if you’ve got the money, they’ve got the honey.

So now you know! Rummage through your wardrobes and turn out the pockets of your little used trousers and jackets and see if you can rustle up the 122m euros! Failing that, raid your children’s piggy banks – they won’t miss it!

(News: Ciñera de Gordón, Leon)