On 12 July it will be another Durham Miners Gala, 154 years after the first one took place in Wharton Park, way back in 1871. There will no doubt be a large crowd attending, down at the Riverside cricket ground, even though there are no deep coal mines left in County Durham and indeed there haven’t been any for about 30 years now.
Naturally this begs the question as to why so many thousands still go to Durham on the second Saturday in July. There are perhaps a number of reasons, but chief among them surely is the need for people from the mining communities in County Durham and indeed for people in the North East in general to remember and respect the mining heritage of County Durham.
With this in mind, I have been looking back at some of the North East Labour History Society (NELHS) journals that can be found online and seeing what stories there are relating to the mining heritage, which is so important to us here in the North East.
In all I looked at 15 articles connected to mining and these can be put into three categories: General, Characters and Strikes.
General
The first journal of the North East Labour History Society came out back in 1967 and it included an article about the keelmen, many of Scottish descent, who worked on the keel boats on the Tyne and the Wear in the 18th centuries, taking coal from the staiths, where waggons dropped it off down river to large boats near the river mouths, which couldn’t make their way up the rivers at that time.
The article notes that the keelmen, “were such men employed in this work so early as the fourteenth century, but the coal trade was of no great size until the early seventeenth century. From then on the body of keelmen grew rapidly in size to some 1,600 men on the Tyne at the beginning of the eighteenth century. With this growth came a strong sense of community feeling (emphasised by the fact that the keelmen lived in district communities such as those of Sandgate in Newcastle and at Dunston) and considerable economic power. During the sixteenth century the keelmen had formed themselves into an independent society and in 1699 they founded their own charity and two years later had a hospital built at their own expense for the care of their aged and infirm.” Additionally, the article also notes the numerous disputes between the keelmen and their bosses and also includes a very useful list of sources about the keelmen.
Another piece about mining which can be found in the NELHS Journals is in the 2006 journal. This article is about the birth of Easington Colliery, tracing it back to initial unsuccessful attempts to sink a mine in 1836, to its final development in 1899 and then onto the 1910’s as it became fully established. On the way Harry Barnes describes aspects of mining life including the working of the mine, the housing and the role of the union.
The 2017 journal contains a piece about trade unions and Methodism in the 19th and early 20th centuries and how nearly all of the early mining unions’ leaders came from either a Wesleyan or Primitive Methodist background. It also contains biographies of some of those leaders, including Thomas Hepburn, John George Harrison and Thomas Burt.
A fourth piece about mining can be found in the 2018 journal, regarding the struggle over female labour at the Durham coalfield 1914-18. This article concerns the impact of the First World War on the mining industry and the arguments about the use of female labour in mining, just as women were being employed in many other areas of industry as so many men went off to fight in Belgium or France.
In the 2020 journal we can find a piece entitled ‘A passion for mining welfare’. This includes descriptions of the work of certain individuals as well as the work undertaken by organisations such as the Ashington Mineworkers’ Federation. It looks at such improvements to welfare as Pithead Baths, the founding of the Ashington Miners' Welfare Institute and how miners and their families made it through the long, difficult 1926 lockout.
Another notable piece in this first section, sees the 2023 journal containing an article about the growth of the Cooperative Movement in the North East in the 1860’s. Whilst this piece particularly concentrates on the cooperative movement, it is worth noting that many of the cooperatives that were set up in the explosion of cooperatives in the 1860s were in mining communities. The cooperative store became an important part of life in many of the region’s mining communities.
Pneumoconiosis was a common disease among miners, given the nature of the job. This is investigated in the 2015 journal in a piece entitled “Pneumoconiosis and Social Class in Twentieth-Century County Durham Mining Communities”.
Finally, there are numerous reminders that mining communities were made up of women as well as men. One of these is in the 2006 journal, which includes a piece about Hannah Hall, described as a woman of the coalfield, and written by her great-great granddaughter Margaret Headley. The article tells the story of Hannah within the context of the wider social, political and economic life of the Durham mining communities of her time, between 1820 and 1901.
Characters
There are also numerous articles in the online journals about some of the major characters from the mining heritage of our region.
In the very first journal or bulletin as it was called, dating back to 1967, there is a piece about miners’ leader Sam Watson. This piece was written by the notable North East writer Sid Chaplin, who noted that, “when I came in from a walk over Alnwick Moors last Sunday and my wife told me that the Guardian had been on the telephone to say that Sam had died in his sleep, and would I write some words, my first reaction was of rebellion, my second that now and for ever my own youth was ended. The years speeding by never meant so much so long as one could imagine Sam Watson sitting under a tree looking out over the city he loved so much. Now he is gone and there is no strong, vital element to sustain us – or to throw ourselves against.” Chaplin goes on to write a moving piece about Watson, relating it to his own work as a miner at the Dean and Chapter colliery in Country Durham.
Sid Chaplin himself is the subject of a piece in the 2006 journal after his own death. In this article John Mapplebeck not only writes about Chaplin’s life, but also about his writing. He also described how the poet W.H. Auden described Chaplin as a regional writer, commenting: “But what if he was ‘a regional writer’ that label which Auden gracelessly hung on him at their first meeting. No worse for that and their subsequent friendship actually suggests that he probably meant it as a compliment. After all it was Auden who wrote of
A poet’s hope: to be like some valley cheese, local but prized elsewhere
It is surely time for the poet of the Tees, Wear and Tyne valleys to be prized again and get his proper, due recognition”. The NELHS went on to establish an annual Sid Chaplin Trophy for essay writing.
Another major cultural figure from a mining background in County Durham is remembered in an article from the 2015 journal; the recently deceased mining artist Norman Cornish. Appropriately enough this was written by Sid Chaplin’s son Michael.
In this appreciation, Chaplin wrote about the huge body of magnificent art which Cornish was able to compile over a decades long second career as an artist, much of which was while he was still working down the mine.
Chaplin also talks of his own meeting with Cornish and describing a visit to Cornish’s hometown of Spennymoor writes this: “The longer I spent in the town, the more I glimpsed quintessential Cornish images. I took a walk where the railway lines once snaked southwards, the outline of Auckland Castle etched against a distant hill. Rooks hung in the air, a cat skulked in the willow scrub by the path, half a dozen piebald ponies grazed in a field. There were football pitches, with kids playing, fighting, laughing; and immaculate allotments fenced with discarded garage doors. In one, a row of fat cabbages waited to be lifted by an elderly man, who straightened suddenly, putting a hand to the small of his back. As he saw me, a total stranger, he waved and called out, ‘How do!’”
Finally, in 2017 there is a personal appreciation of the Durham Miners Leader Davey Hopper, who had died in July 2016. John Creaby, the author of the appreciation, reminds us of the importance of the Durham Miners Gala today, noting that, “Alan Cummings said that Davey’s legacy would surely be the Durham Miners Gala, which has grown over the last few years to rival the turn out in the 1960s. Jeremy Corbyn wrote of him being a pillar of strength for the working class, a huge loss who would be greatly missed. But Davey Hopper’s spirit will live on through his beloved Big Meeting, the great working class gathering celebrating our traditions, history and struggle.”
Strikes
Strikes were a common feature of the coalfield as miners struggled to gain better wages and working conditions, and the 2006 journal includes an article about a strike as far back as 1734. This is based on a piece of writing originally published by Newcastle Society of Antiquaries in 1858. It us also noted that it is unusual to find any written accounts of strikes or other aspects of mining life before the advent of public education in the 1800’s.
In the 2015 journal there are two more pieces about striking miners. One is about the general strike of 1926 and investigates whether or not the strike was undermined by volunteers. The second piece is about connections between Northumberland miners, who in 1887 were locked in a bitter dispute over a proposed wage reduction. This attracted the attention of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and the Socialist League (SL) and the article talks about the visits of these Socialists from London.
The final great miners’ strike in 1984/5 is also dealt with through a piece in the 2021 journal with personal recollections by someone who was working at Thompson’s law firm at the time.
Comment
The mining heritage of the North East of England is a rich heritage in many ways and the wide variety of articles produced over the decades by the NE Labour History Society reflects this very well. The articles vary from talking about everyday life in mining communities to talking about some of the heroes of those communities, to specific events such as strikes.
Taken together these articles and the many others in the North East Labour History Society archive connected to the mining industry and the mining communities, make up a rich seam of social history, which should be of interest to many in the region.
If you want to read the articles mentioned please go here https://nelh.net/the-societys-journal/previous-issues/
For more information about the NE Labour History Society and how to join please see here https://nelh.net/
