North East England cannot be understood outside of an appreciation of the coal industry. From the sixteenth until the twentieth century the Great Northern Coalfield was the most important source of fuel in Britain. Coal structured the economic and social development of the region by attracting cognate industries and nurturing generations of industrial workers whose traditions informed the annals of labour history. The miners’ unions are among the most important and historic in our national story, they engaged in some of the most momentous events in British economic, social and political history as well as less exciting, but no less significant, developments in social and industrial welfare.
The minute books of the Durham Miners’ Association (est.1869) represent the spine of a priceless record of industrial organisation and struggle. They feature the names and ideas of regional luminaries, such as Peter Lee and John Wilson as well as the experience of ordinary miners and their families. The books provide a fascinating insight (with one or two omissions, between 1876 and 1941) into the nature of industrial relations, trade union organisation and the provision of welfare, not least in the context of the tragedy of mining accidents and disasters,.
This record represents an extraordinary rich resource for the academic researcher, teachers and their pupils, as well as the family historian. Now, courtesy of The Durham Miners' Association and The North East England Mining Archive and Research Centre (NEEMARC) at the University of Sunderland, this resource is available online via the Special Collections Catalogue for the enjoyment and enrichment of people all over the world.
annaxmalina
blakekathryn
baratheonpilled
stormborns
vaporwave
prguitarman
ellievsbear