by Derrik Scott

The Strike dragged on

Dirty tricks were employed by the coal owners and their agents in order to entice workers from all over the country to work in the mines of the north-east of England. An overman from Marley Hill Colliery, Co. Durham trying to recruit men in Staffordshire reported that the strike in Northumberland and Durham was settled, but Marley Hill, being a new colliery, needed men. The agents of Radcliffe Colliery in the north brought 32 miners from Cornwall to replace their workers with promises of 4s per day. When they received their pay of 3s or 2s 6d per day they struck for two days until they received assurances that the 4s would be paid. (This cost the owners money because the Cornish men were poor coal hewers – not so good as the north-east pitmen). When the owners offered the Cornish men 4d per tub (they only filled about four tubs per day) they absconded. A reward of �50 was offered for their capture but some escaped (possibly to go home). Some were captured and tried at Alnwick but were acquitted.

After about 15 weeks, practically every colliery was working with some officials and strangers. Reports were circulated that men were breaking away from the union ranks and returning to work. The unionists, being alarmed at such reports held meetings to reassure their members but abject poverty, misery and deprivation were beginning to take their toll.

The local press reported that the strike was crumbling and was only kept going by a handful of agitators from the union. To show their determination and to give lie to the press reports a general meeting was held at the Newcastle Town Moor on 30th July. 72 banners were paraded and an estimated 30,000 persons attended on a rainy day. Another meeting was held at Bishop Auckland about the same time. It was reported at the Town Moor meeting that a writ had been issued headed “The Attorney General v. Dodds” against the printers of the “Miners Advocate” because it was not stamped. It was only a trade paper and did not contain news or meddle with religion or politics. It had been established for about a year when it was discovered that it was not stamped. The Advocate was fined for printing news that was not a month old. The Advocate ceased publication because the �600 required to make it a “stamped paper” was not raised.

After a period of 18 weeks on strike, great numbers of the men began to break away from the ranks of the union and return to work. The owners had succeeded in inducing a large number of men to come to work in the north-east from many parts of the country. The Durham men were the first to yield but let it be known they had suffered more hardship by the cruel treatment of the coal owners than their brethren in Northumberland. The Northumberland men stuck out but at a meeting called at Newcastle Town Moor, only about 1,200 turned up.

After 20 weeks the strike was over. The men had to return to work on the owners’ terms but the dispute was the greatest show of working class solidarity against the united forces of capital to date.

The monthly bond was forgotten, but not the actions and reputations of the men! The owners re-employed the men they wanted with assurances that, where possible, they would re-inhabit the houses from which they were evicted – assuming of course, that the present occupant didn’t want to continue working at the mine. Union activists were “blacklisted” and could not find work at any pit in the two counties.

After the resumption of work old scores were settled. Some Welshmen were particularly harshly treated. A riot took place at Seaton Delaval with the Welshmen coming off second best! Another riot took place at East Holywell where the miners took their revenge on strikebreakers who happened to be Irish. Writing in his book “Pit Life in County Durham” David Douglass mentions the neighbouring villages of Seaton Delaval, Seghill and Cramlington (all in the county of Northumberland). After the defeat of the miners in the great strike of 1844, they took in hand the task of disciplining the blacklegs. At Delaval and Holywell lines of cable were stretched across underground roadways to catch the heads, throats and bodies of the Welsh blacklegs as they rode past on tubs, with ponies or on man riding equipment. At Delaval, Seghill and Cramlington the tools of the blacklegs were hurled down the shaft. N.B. the above villages, together with some in Co. Durham were known as “red villages” because of their left wing activities in the 19th and first part of the 20th centuries.

The Durham miners have long memories. The Rev. Colin C. Short, a Methodist Minister writing in “Bands and Banners” vol. 3, Autumn 1999 reports that when he first came to the north-east to be minister of churches at Burnhope, South Moor and Craghead in the Stanley Circuit in 1980, he was asked by the husband of one of his members where he came from? On replying “East Cornwall” he was called a “black jack”. Apparently, this was the term used by the Durham miners of the 19th century to Cornish men who were “strike-breakers” in the 1832 and 1844 strikes.

In strikes it has often been said that there are no winners, only losers.

It is interesting to note that an economist has estimated that collectively the 1844 strike cost the coal owners more than �500,000 – enough to have settled the strike several times over without having recourse to strike action with all the misery it caused. Of course, it can be argued that by allowing the strike to proceed in the first place, the owners proved “who were the bosses!”

However, there was a disagreement amongst the coal owners following resumption of work in the mines after the strike. There was a severe depression in the coal trade, which was not helped by the construction of railroads, which meant that there was competition from other coalfields, which had previously been the domain of Northumberland and Durham. There was a system in the north-east, operated by the owners called “the vend”. This determined the amount of coal, which could be produced, and the price at which it was to be sold. It was to cosset the coal trade from the worst effects of competition. However, there were differences amongst the owners. Those with rich mines complained of having to restrict output in order to allow the less fortunate a market share. Bickering broke out as to the price to charge fort the various grades of coal. As previously stated, there was competition from other coalfields. Owners in north-east tried to counter this by restricting output. By 1843 they were only producing 43% of the coal known as “the vend”. After the 1844 strike, some collieries resumed production sooner than others did, with variations in performance. An audit found that some owners had increased the amount for 1844 (“overs”) while others had produced far less (“shorts”).

According to rules laid down by the Coal Trades Committee, a fine should be paid by those producing “overs” to compensate those who had produced less. The penalties for the “overs” came to �49,700 0f which �10,000 were owed by three owners. Due to financial constraints the fine was reduced to �29,874 but the owners did not pay. The vend was at an end. N.B. soon afterwards the owners “made up” and were reunited.