Cotgrave during the 1984/85 miners strike
WITH family and friends threatened by pit closures in South Wales, Cotgrave miner Mick Chewings vehemently supported the strike 25 years ago.
He did not go back down the pit for the entire 12-month strike - but it was not easy and money was tight.
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Mick Chewings
At first he says there were about 200 miners striking at the Cotgrave Colliery but by the end the number had whittled down to about 50.
But Mr Chewings says he and his comrades never faltered because of the support from their wives and partners.
"The women support groups were brilliant, they kept us going," he said.
"I've got a wife and two children and if she'd said I want you back to work I would have gone back.
"The women were stronger than the men. If it wasn't for the wives and girlfriends a lot of the men would have gone back to work."
His wife, Jennifer Chewings looked after their two boys, aged eight and nine, while being an active member of the miners' support group in Cotgrave.
Amongst other duties they ran the soup kitchens at the Cotgrave Welfare for the striking miners and their families.
Mr Chewings, now 57, said: "We had donations given to us for food and the women used to get together and sort it out and dish it out to the families.
"We struggled financially, we suffered big time.
"My family and dad helped me a lot, my parents paid for the mortgage because my father was a retired miner."
Good friends fell out over which side of the picket line to stand on.
"You had new friends, a lot of the lads that went on strike with me became friends and you made a lot of friends all around the country," said Mr Chewings.
Mr Chewings fondly remembers the national march held in Cotgrave led by National Union of Mineworkers president Arthur Scargill.
"That was really good, we had friends from all over the country with banners and that, and we marched down the village."
But then nearly a year after the strike started, on March 3 in 1985, it ended and Mr Chewings alongside the other Cotgrave strikers went back down the pit.
He said: "It was hard to go back, they [non-striking miners] didn't give us a hard time, they appreciated what we'd done but it didn't seem the same.
"There's people I don't speak to even today but then I didn't really get on with them before the strike."
Families in Cotgrave, like other mining towns across Notts, were divided by the strike but Mr Chewings says most of them 'just didn't talk about it' afterwards and there were few, if any, long-term hostilities.
One Cotgrave miner, who does not want to be named, continued working during the strike, despite having four brothers striking in northern England.
He said: "We went to work one Monday morning but we were picketed at the gate by Welsh miners, they came on the bus and asked us to support their strike.
"The Yorkshire miners came down as well, they were forceful, they threatened us, they said, 'you will come on strike, we will stop you coming in to the pit'.
"But miners said, 'we'll make our own decision', it turned people against striking.
"People said, 'you're not going to tell me what to do, I'll decide which way I'll vote'.
"Then the picketing really started and it got really nasty, but there was a fairly large minority that went on strike in Cotgrave. There would be a mass picket at the gates – hundreds some times and the bus had to get through them."
He says things changed in the mining town when the strike started – within a week friends were nursing beers on opposite sides of the Cotgrave Welfare. "There wasn't much aggression but it was a horrible feeling, he added."
Like Mr Chewings, he said the pits were never the same again after the strike ended.
"Afterwards it was terrible. The workers [that went on strike] weren't treated the same as the rest of us – but treated as destructive."
7 Comments
by rusty johnson, coalville
Wednesday, July 01 2009, 11:29PM
“as a striking miner at cotgrave, i agree with everything that mick chewings has said, we worked on different shifts, and we knew that the strike would come one day, we as individuals had to make a contious choice, to come out and support our union and above all our industry, i made that choice, all of us that came out on strike did not know one another, maybe in passing but not verbally, we all talked the same language, i at the time was not politically motivated at all, i picketed only cotgrave, we seen the brutality from the met.. at first hand, thatchers thugs, when we on the picket line were threatened or even on a couple of occasions were nearly run over by working miners cars, the police "bless them" never saw a thing, even when they were still stood next to us, in all the rhetoric since that momentus strike, Scargill was right, wether you liked or loathed him, after the strike and we went to workthe NUM as we knew it was not protective of us as members of our great union, they tried in vain to stop us talking of the strike and victimising us in our place of work, to no avail, ok there was only about 54 of us at the end of the strike but in that time we had an education as to the rights and wrongs of trades unionism, i like mick chewings reformed our branch at cotgrave, when the split happened in december 1985, i like mick ended up very good friends and we aquired posts as NUM cotgrave officials, in 1992, were we again called upon to fight for our survival of our colliery, but alas were betrayed by a SCAB association, and an unfeeling capitalist tory government.
fraternally rusty johnson thelast branch secretary cotgrave NUM”
by The Equaliser, Nottingrad
Friday, April 10 2009, 9:09AM
“Try and get hold of a book published in 1984 entitled "State of Siege".
A careful unbiassed study will show police brutalityy and even the use of covert troops.”
by Soundman, England
Friday, March 13 2009, 10:36AM
“Where have all the Communist gone, gone to hide every one, I think the commies are having a shindig in Hucknall so they can pat one another on the back for destroying the NUM and the Coal industry and to celebrate one of the biggest defeats in Union history led by the most arrogant strutting loudmouth idiot in union history followed by the dimmest idiots in history who ended up with nothing while their Glorious leader lived and still does in luxury , his thugs running around communities. Without those idiots there would have been a bigger coal industry today”
by Trivium09, West Bridgford
Friday, March 13 2009, 12:42AM
“I remember this and had no feelings of strong support for either side.
However what annoys me years later is going to watch cricket in Leeds as a Notts man and being called a scab by subhuman scum who are so obviously far too young to have been a miner during that time.
A lot of people need to grow up!”
by jim, down memory lane
Thursday, March 12 2009, 11:15PM
“Andyman, Derbys its no good trying to get through to Scargills brainwashed band of thugs but I think you hit the nail right on the head mate ,25 years and he is still hoodwinking them but not anbody else . sad because most of them lads did not have a choice because of the village bully boys Intimidation .”
by Andyman, Derbys
Thursday, March 12 2009, 10:12PM
“One thing omitted from this story is the fact that miners were never given a national ballot, an official ballot would have resulted in all Notts pits voting for strike action by a considerably large majority. These figures were taken from each colliery, which all held unofficial ballots, but those in Yorkshire gave a differing result which were never officially disclosed. Ballot results from Yorkshire were 2:1 to vote against strike action, yet Scargill could not have this descent in his own back yard, so a national ballot was never called.
Even Mick Mc Gahey, Scargills deputy publicly called him mad and insane, and realised that Scargill would not negotiate, yet had he done so; many of the pits would have been saved, around 80% of them.
It has been clearly demonstrated that Scargill was out for his own political ambitions and did not care a jot about the miners, he wanted a seemingly legitimate cause to hide behind and gain public support.”
by Pete, sherwood
Thursday, March 12 2009, 9:20PM
“is it commie week , plenty from the reds and NUM .
good stuff NEP , brilliant journalism”