Voices in the Coalshed: Christmas in a Time of Strike, December 1984

After being on strike for nine months, Christmas 1984 was looking bleak for many miners and their families. The pressure to return to work no doubt increased and almost certainly the will to remain on strike was challenged. For those who did remain on strike, it would be a Christmas like no other they had experienced.

For some time, other trades unions had been exploring ways of supporting the miners through collecting donations in their local communities and distributing food parcels. They were keen to ensure that this would include giving their comrades as near to a normal Christmas as possible.

Among the examples I have come across are the so-called Turkey Runs. One of these delivered an estimated 7,000 turkeys to families in the Welsh coalfields. This along with other items, allowed some to have as near to a normal Christmas as possible. Everyone was keen that the children should not suffer.

In other parts of the coalfields, similar support came in the form of food and toys collected by women’s support groups such as Women Against Pit Closures. Christmas parties were held in Town Halls, Working Men’s Clubs and Miners’ Welfare Clubs. One party, for 350 children, was oranised by Anne Scargill, at Worsborough Bridge Miners’ Welfare Club. This was paid for through a national appeal which had raised over £360,000.

Support for the striking miners didn’t only come from home; French miners sent 300,000 gifts for the miners children; these were distributed across the country and helped our miners with their aim that the children should not suffer. Another shipment came from trades unionists in Gothenburg, Sweden. This gift met a barrier in the form of Customs, and a fee of £745 was charged before the packages could be brought into the country and distributed. The people of Sweden wanted to help other workers in their darkest time.

I found myself wondering whether the response to Christmas 1984 was exceptional. I looked at December issues of Coal Magazine on the museum’s website and found an article in the issue from December 1952 which contained the lines:

“..they managed to keep the spirit of Christmas alive during the hard days. The shadow of strike or lockout was never allowed to fall upon the bairns, and there was always something saved to fill the stockings you fastened together with a safety-pin and hung over the brass mantel piece rail.”

So, at Christmas 1984, the miners did what miners had always done, the best they could in the most difficult of times.

Image Credit: Keith Pattison. This blog is written by Volunteer Nicola

Information from, Coal News Dec 52, Reading History.com Christmas in Mining Towns 1984: Turkey for a Striking Christmas by Amy Longmuir: Peoples History Museum – Miner’s Strike 1984 to 1985: WAPC: Tribune: Keeping Christmas on the Picket Line by Gavin Hawkton