My blogging is thin at the moment as I am trying to write an article about Easington Colliery which is on the east coast of County Durham. It covers the period 1911 to 1924. It was a time during which the pit, the community and the local miners' lodge took off. It included the 1912 Minimum Wage Strike, 1913 Unofficial Strikes, 1920 Datum Line Strike and the 1921 Lock-Out. Then there was the impact of the First World War with 198 names on the War Memorial in the Easington Colliery cemetery for that conflict, plus the Influenza Epidemic of 1918-9. There was also political activity, first by the local Branch of the Independent Labour Party and then with Sidney Webb being elected as the local Labour MP in 1922, 1923 and 1924. He had his work on the Sankey Commission of 1919 to thank him for that.
If anyone thinks that I seem to be missing anything or they have their own nuggets of information, then please let me know via the comment box attached to this thread.
The photo shows my Dad and myself, with next door's dog looking over the wall. It was taken around 1959 in the backyard of our home at a colliery house in Baldwin Street - although in the period of the 1926 General Strike and the Miners' Lock-Out, Stanley Baldwin the Prime Minister was only popular amongst the coal owners and not the miners. My father was brought to Easington when he was two and lived there until he died 84 years later. My mother lived there for 70 years, from the age of 20 until her death in the Nursing Home which had been built as a home for the local pit Manager. For my tributes to my mother and father click here and here.
No comments:
Post a Comment