A one-day symposium on the history and legacy of the miners’ strike of 1984/5 takes place at National Mining Museum England in Wakefield on 22 February 2025.

The event is organised by National Mining Museum England and supported by the Society for the Study of Labour History. Attendance is free, but please register at the link below if you wish to attend.

• Symposium details
• Register now

Programme

10am – Welcome and refreshments

10.30am-12pm – The Strike in Historical Perspective

Speakers include:

• Professor Keith Gildart (University of Wolverhampton), ‘Historians and the 1984/5 miners’ strike’
• Professor Andrew Perchard, “Run with the fox and hunt with the hounds”? Re-examining NCB managers during 1984-5 strike
• Professor David Howell, ‘Remembering George Spencer: Memory, Myth and the Nottinghamshire Coalfield’.

12pm-1pm – Lunch and ‘On Behalf of the People Exhibition’ – (Please bring your own lunch)

1pm-1.30pm – Special screening of In the Veins

A special screening of ‘In the Veins’, a short film that resonates through time, using over a century of archive footage to shine a light onto the face of the mining heritage of Yorkshire and the North East of England.

1.30pm-3pm – The Social and Political legacy of the Strike

Speakers include:

• Dr Natalie Thomlinson (University of Reading), ‘Women and the strike: Narratives, memories, legacies’
• Dr Kat Simpson (University of Huddersfield): ‘Mined Out? Youth Experiences of Growing Up in the Former Coalfields of Barnsley’
• Dr Lisa McKenzie, ‘The Belligerent- The State of the Red Wall working class’.

3pm-3.10pm – Refreshments

3.10pm-3.30pm – Closing Comments and Discussion

• Symposium details
• Book now