(1) Yesterday evening I went to the Arkwright Community Centre to attend an evening on the 25th Anniversary of the Miners’ Strike which was organised by the Bolsover Women's Action Group and included a fine pie and pea supper. The key speaker was their local MP, Dennis Skinner. I have heard Dennis make many fine speaks, but this was the best ever. Not only was he on top form in the style of his presentation, but his analysis of the events in 1984-5 was highly significant. Luckily his speech was filmed. I will look out for its presentation and will publicise it. It will be a must for anyone to view. Meanwhile this video will do nicely.
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(2) A week earlier I attended a meeting of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Labour History Society which examined the Derbyshire Miners’ Day Release Classes which had been run by the Sheffield University Extramural Department from 1952 to 1994. These classes were also killed off by the pit closure programme which followed the defeat of the NUM in 1985. I was an Industrial Day Release Tutor at Sheffield from 1966 until 1987 and taught on some 30 Derbyshire and Yorkshire Miners’ classes in that time. In these classes everyone learnt from each other - in particular the tutors came to understand more and more about the pits and life in the colliery communities. For more, see here. (The above photo shows the third year of the Derbyshire Miners' Day Release Course held at Hurst House in 1982-3. Appropriately the meeting a week gone Saturday was held at the same venue. It was my first visit there for 23 years.)*************************************************************************************
(3) In the past week I have also been contacted by a former Yorkshire Miner who was a member of the very first Industrial Day Release Class I taught back in 1966. He is Dave Wigley (his family originated from Wigley near Brampton in North East Derbyshire) and he was one of the younger members of a exceptional class of 20 members. Four members of the class who unfortunately are no longer with us were Jack Wake who was the Secretary of the Cortonwood Branch of the NUM during the Miners' Strike of 1984-5, Terry Patchett who became MP for Barnsley East between 1983-96, Norman West MEP for South Yorkshire 1984-98 and Ron Rigby who became leader of the Barnsley Metropolitan Council. After his Day Release studies, Dave went on to study full time at Fircroft College. He then moved on to Denmark and went on to spend time in a number of countries including Iran and Saudi Arabia. He is now settled in Holland
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(4) I am Political Education Officer for the Dronfield Labour Party. The last Discussion Meeting I organised for 10 November was about the 1984-5 strike. It was addressed by Barbara Jackson who not only worked with Women Against Pit Closures in Sheffield but was herself on strike as a white collar worker employed by the NCB in their Regional Office at Queen Street in Sheffield. Details of her fine contribution to our meeting are given here.
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(5) Increasingly during 2009, I have been investigating the history of the mining community I grew up in at Easington Colliery in County Durham. I was born at Easington in 1936 and apart from undertaking my National Service and becoming a full-time Adult Student, it was my home until I married Ann and we moved to Hull in 1963. Then Ann and I (and our children) regularly visited Easington Colliery and neighbouring Shotton Colliery during the lifetime of our parents. Ann originates from Shotton Colliery where her father was onsetter at the pit. As both of my late parents would have been 100 this year, I gave details about their lives here and here. They were both solidly part of the Mining family tradition. (The above photo is taken at Easington Colliery some hundred years ago and shows some of the men who sunk the pit, their families and their homes)
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(6) Appropriately, as the year draws to a close I have another event to attend which deals with the 1984-5 Strike. The Crucible Theatre at Sheffield is showing Richard Rose’s “The Enemies Within”, repeating David Thacker’s original 1985 production . I have booked in a group of 12 of us. For details for the performance see here.
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