At a meeting in the Co-operative Hall in Coxlodge near Gosforth it was decided that the men would return to work early. 300 votes were recorded at the meeting; only 15 were against returning to work early. The mine owners agreed to re-open the mines if the reduction in wages was accepted.
Northumberland miners overall were in favour of the strike but it was not as clear-cut as other counties. The Scremerston Colliery near Berwick voted in favour of returning to work early and the Shilbottle colliery near Alnwick continued to work for four days a week in order to supply the Dunston flour mill with coal. On 30 April miners’ delegates rejected the government’s final offer of £10,000,000, soon after negotiations collapsed. Northumberland was the only county to be in favour of submitting the Government’s final offer to the miners.
It is also worth noting that not everyone was in favour of the strikes to begin with and many wrote into the editor of the Newcastle Daily Chronicle to show their views on the miner’s strikes. See below a letter sent to the editor from a widowed coal owner.
Sir,
I am a widow of 68 and one of 1,300 small owners of a colliery from which I receive a small sum in interest upon my hard-earned savings, which with the amount I still work for, keeps me and my crippled son in a very small cottage.
If the government gave the miners £100,000,000 per annum, to keep up their wages. I should have to pay an increased tax of £4 per annum for this purpose. Why should I and the whole people be taxed in this way for miners, who even under the wages scheme, would still be earning very good wages, especially if we consider that they get free houses and free coal and burn four times more coal than I could ever afford to burn. Will Mr. Smithe or Mr. Hodges answer…
A Widowed Coal Owner
Another letter claimed to be from a miner who argued for the strike to be cancelled and for the longer working days to be brought back.
Sir,
Instead of putting blame for the coal muddle on either miner, owner, or government, would it not be wise to give a little space in your daily-written leading article to a solution of same?
We certainly, since hours of labour have been reduced to seven per day, got into such a tangle in regard to trade that the sooner the better we get back to the old condition of eight again. Being a miner, I can safely say that miners would sooner work longer hours than suffer reduced wages at present in face of the high cost of living. And herein may lie the whole salvation of Labour.
If the miners were to go back to eight hours, also giving up the 13 13/13 percent received at change, I have no doubt the owner on their part would forego their claim at present until things got back to more normal conditions again.
Then with regard to the National Wages Board, surely both men and owners would agree for the government to find a solution before the trade need another reduction in wages.
An Unnamed Miner
Another letter sent into the Hexham Herald from a transporter was also against the coal miner strike.
Sir,
Miners on strike appear to have a much better time than the workmen of other trades, who are idle in consequence of the strike. Miners pay no rent, buy no coal, and are today being fed through several agonies at the ratepayers expense. If miners get Government subsidy, then my trade and others will have the same legal rights and God knows where it will end!
The coal miners strike also affected local businesses such as the Chirnside Paper Mill which closed down early to provide maintenance which was usually done later in the year. Most of Northumberland swapped to burning wood as a substitute for coal. Unfortunately, not everyone could afford this and some coal miners in Newburn were arrested for stealing firewood from the railways in order to keep warm. The village councillor of Berwick decided to buy in around 400-500 tons of Belgium coal in order to help with the coal shortages his local area was feeling.
The miners went on strike from 15 April to 28 June, however, without the support from their Triple Alliance allies they realised they were unable to beat the mine owners and ended the walkout. The miners saw their wages drastically fall to 20% lower than in 1914.
The result of the strike meant the planned 1921 census was postponed and wasn’t completed until later in the year. The 1921 census has now been released by the National Archives, in partnership with the Find My Past website. It will be the only census to be released for the next 30 years. So, to find out your family ancestry head over to the Find My Past!
References
British Newspaper Archives
The Northumberland Archives
The National Archives