Thorne Branch of the Yorkshire Area of the National Union of Mineworkers
The branch organised mineworkers at Thorne Colliery, north of Doncaster. Explorations for this pit started in 1904 and production commenced in 1928.
Water ingress prompted the NCB to temporarily close the pit in 1956. Subsequent substantial renovations and developments included an underground link with Hatfield Colliery. However the pit was closed in 1968. Increased demand for coal led the NCB to again invest in the pit, but it was again closed in 1990 and underground pumps switched off in 2004 after privatisation.
The front of the banner depicts Joseph Robert Alwyn Machin, Branch Secretary from 1927 to 1945 and Area President from 1952. He stood as President of the NUM in 1960 but died before the count was announced, which he won. The banner was probably made by Community Arts Service and is not unlike a number of others in the area. It was found in its original box in excellent condition under the stage of the Miner's Welfare Club. It is on display at the NUM Offices in Barnsley.
Thanks to Chris Kitchen Jnr, Richard Riggs and Danny O’Connor for assistance and Dave Douglas and Eddie Downes for information.
Thanks to the Yorkshire Area of the National Union of Mineworkers for permission to photograph and reproduce this banner. Image copyright NUM.
If you have any information about this or any other banner please tell NUM or Past Pixels.
Thorne and Moorends Colliery Memorial Committee
A community group aiming to create a permanent memorial.
National Justice for Mineworkers Campaign
Our objectives are to keep the issue of victimised miners to the forefront of the labour and trade union movement and to raise money to alleviate hardship among the families of the victimised men.
By the end of the strike in March 1985, 200 mineworkers served time in prison or custody, 20,000 people had been injured and 966 mineworkers had been sacked by the NCB. Two miners were killed on picket lines; David Jones on the 15th March 1984 and Joe Green on the 15th June 1984.
The 966 men were originally sacked for no more than honouring picket lines, defending their jobs and pit communities, their class and the future of their children. Only a small number had been dismissed for offences against the person or damage to property. Many miners subsequently cleared by the courts were not re-instated and neither were many more who successfully won their cases for unfair dismissal at Industrial Tribunals. Many were even blacklisted from getting any work outside the coal industry.
NJMC is supported by the NUM, Labour Party, TUC conferences and many national & regional unions.
National Justice for Mineworkers Campaign
2 Hilden Street
Leigh
WN7 4LG
www.njfm.org.uk
01942 606 828
Produced to support NJMC
Photography by Martin Shakeshaft. Digital retouching by Adrian Hawes.
Photography, design and print by unionised labour.
www.martinshakeshaft.com www.kavitagraphics.co.uk www.rapspiderweb.co.uk
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