The Miners' Strike and support groups: Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire was the centre of some of the most bitter, protracted and acrimonious disputes of the entire Miners' Strike, and one of the National Union of Miners' (NUM) most damaging internal divisions.

Much of the discord was caused because NUM members who responded to the national strike call were heavily outnumbered by those who voted against in a series of locally organised pithead ballots made possible by the federal nature of the union.

Communities divided

The voting figures for strike action in Blidworth, Nottinghamshire, were 399 in favour and 461 against; and in nearby Rufford 409 for and 760 against. The pattern was repeated in each of the 31 pits that continued to produce coal throughout the strike. This created great animosity between striking miners and their working counterparts who lived in close proximity and confrontations between their children in school. Neighbours and workmates refused to talk to one another, families divided along pro- and anti-strike lines, lifelong friendships were broken, and communities torn apart.

The Union of Democratic Miners, lead by Chris Butcher (alias Silver Birch) was based in Nottinghamshire. Davy Jones, the first NUM member to die on a picket line, did so in March in unexplained circumstances near Ollerton.

All eyes on Nottinghamshire

This is not the place to analyse the differences, traditions and histories that separated Nottinghamshire miners from those elsewhere, nor why the strike in Nottinghamshire took the particular turn that it did. The absence of a national strike ballot for which Nottinghamshire NUM President, Ray Chadburn, and Secretary, Henry Richardson, called was perhaps the most divisive issue of the entire strike. What matters is that everyone recognised the vital strategic importance of the coalfield in determining the final outcome of the strike and that the two sides in the dispute responded accordingly.

Nottinghamshire became ring-fenced by police drafted in from forces as far away as Essex to prevent ‘presumed pickets’ from other parts of the country entering the county. Thus the residents of quiet villages including Rainworth and Blidworth became accustomed to overhead helicopters, a heavy police presence on their streets, and house-by-house searches conducted to establish if there were any Yorkshire pickets staying in their homes or sleeping in tents or caravans in their gardens.

Food runs and financial support

Drivers from Cambridge, taking part in the weekly 'food run' organised by the Cambridge Miners' Support Group, therefore had to navigate their way around roadblocks, police cordons and check points where cars were stopped, searched, and turned back. Food delivery cars were often driven by women since they attracted less attention.

Secondary school teacher Alison New, a Support Group committee member, recalls her lack of confidence on her first trip: 'I had only just learned to drive and had never driven anywhere outside Cambridge but somehow it was okay and the cheques and the food always seemed to get through.'

The drivers always took time to talk to families and to check what else could be done. For example, the phone bill of the secretary of the Blidworth Action Group, Annette Holroyd and then Chris Tucker, was paid by the Cambridge group.

External support for the Nottinghamshire villages was uneven. The two communities that almost certainly received the most outside help were Blidworth and Ollerton: Blidworth, after scenes of large numbers of police dressed in full riot gear terrifying the village on the night of 16 May 1984 received national media attention and provoked public outrage, and Ollerton after the tragic loss of Davy Jones.

Striking miners in Blidworth were always trying to divert resources to nearby Rainworth. A photograph taken in Blidworth in July 1984 show not only well-wishers delivering supplies and money from Cambridge (their most reliable source of income) but also from Camden, Hammersmith, Lambeth and Kent.

Women's support and action groups

Women’s support and action groups were formed throughout the country, including in Blidworth, Rainworth and virtually every pit village in Nottinghamshire. They were co-ordinated by Notts Women Against Pit Closures, chaired by Ida Hackett, a deeply loved trade union activist and veteran of many local campaigns. Ida was almost 73 at the time of the strike.

One story told about Ida related to a time when two national union officials had visited Mansfield to persuade women in the hosiery industry to accept lower rates of pay than men. She and her friends had thrown them out of the meeting and run after them as they fled up Berry Hill.

Strengthening morale

Women’s groups played a crucial role in strengthening the morale and combating the isolation of individual women. Their organisational skills ensured that all strikers and their families were adequately clothed and fed. Women also handled large sums of money, ran the kitchens, and sorted out day-to-day problems with gas and electricity payments, mortgage arrears and evictions for non-payment of rent. And they positioned themselves at the forefront of the strike, campaigning on many issues affecting their communities, such as health and education.

Having never spoken in public before, Pauline Radford, Doreen Humber, Sue Petney and Yvonne Woodhead from Blidworth, and Annette Needham from Rainworth, taught themselves to become confident and effective speakers and addressed meetings about the strike in London, around the country, and even abroad. They and other Nottinghamshire women also went to the Greenham Common peace camp where they had a common purpose with women campaigning for electricity to be fired by coal rather than nuclear power.

Pauline Radford (Blidworth) presents Alison New (Cambridge) with a commemorative plate. Also in the picture are Frances Connelly, Morag Shiach and Nicki Glegg.

Direct action

What women brought to the strike was spontaneity and a disregard for hierarchy, rules and regulations that sometimes caused tensions with the NUM.

In Blidworth there was an overnight occupation of the youth club by 50 men and women, but when they were offered the premises for women and children only the offer was turned down and they were given the village hall (‘the Glasshouse’) as a strike centre instead. A similar two-day sit-in acquired the use of the Drill Hall in Rainworth for strikers and their families. The communal eating arrangements in both villages did much to prevent demoralisation.

Some women from Cambridge and their children went regularly to the Nottinghamshire villages, cooked meals, cleaned up in the strike centre, and generally did whatever they could to help.

Alison New remembers joining the Blidworth picket line on the day when the trade union call went out for an ‘all-woman picket line’. Fellow Cambridge Support Group member Nicky Glegg was arrested at a later picket line at Blidworth and made to pay a small fine.

At Rainworth, NUM stalwart Mick Walker, who had completed two spells as branch secretary as well as a two-year course at Ruskin College Oxford, was a pillar of strength throughout the strike. Everyone was devastated by Mick’s untimely death from cancer at the age of 40.

Support for mining families

Families suffering from stress and exhaustion were invited to take holidays in Cambridge and Sue Maddock, Lore Burgess and others welcomed them into their homes.

At Christmas individually chosen, wrapped and labelled Christmas presents were distributed to the children in both villages.

Mining heritage

The Miners' Strike ended in 1985, with the UDM seceding from the NUM in the same year. In Nottinghamshire, the Blidworth pit closed in 1989 and the Rufford pit in 1993.

Disputes continue to this day about the custody of beautiful painted Nottinghamshire banners, some of which are being restored by the Mining Heritage team and can be viewed on the Mining Heritage website. 

The Rufford banner still remains (below) but the original Blidworth banner was destroyed during the strike.

The Nottinghamshire Ex and Retired Miners Association acquired £46,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to produce their own ambitious oral history project recording the memories of former Nottinghamshire miners and the proud mining traditions of their area.