Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.34.5
Object Name
Booklet
Title
WOMEN AGAINST PIT CLOSURES
Place
Barnsley
People
Women Against Pit Closures
Events
Miners' Strike 1984-1985
Date
1984
Description
Small book, 'Women Against Pit Closures Barnsley Women'. The front cover has the title at the top, with an image of women holding "COAL NOT DOLE" placards at the first national women's rally in support of striking miners, Barnsley Civic Hall, 12 May 1984.
The book was written by women who lived or worked in the Barnsley area, recording their experiences during the early months of the 1984 miners' strike. The memories in the book relate to money, support, women on the march, picketing, travelling to London to speak at rallies, and a discussion of the first National Conference. The book has photographs throughout.
The 1984-85 Miners' Strike was called after the government announced plans to close 20 pits, at a cost of twenty thousand miners jobs, which the miners accurately saw as the beginning of the closure of all the pits in the UK. The strike lasted for over a year before ending unsuccessfully in March 1985. While letters from the NCB to strikers claimed that it was "absolutely untrue" that the government planned to ultimately close 85 pits, the NUM's speculation was correct. A second round of closures was announced in 1992 closing almost all the mines in the UK, leaving former pit towns with extremely high rates of unemployment and deprivation that last to this day.
Multimedia
