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Women Against Pit Closures

What was WAPC?

When the Miners Strike began in March 1984, a group of women got together and formed Women Against Pit Closures. Soon after, individual groups of women all over the country set up their own spontaneous Women Against Pit Closures groups.

The first of the groups started in Barnsley.

Many of them were connected in some way to mining families (husbands, sons, brothers, fathers and so on).

Women Against Pit Closures 1984 memorabilia

Lots of other women in Women Against Pit Closures didn't have any mining connections but felt strongly enough about the Miners Strike to give their support.

It's widely accepted that the Strike wouldn't have continued for as long as it did without the support of the women.

They organised soup kitchens, collected money and put together food parcels for mining families, travelled around the country and further afield to make people aware of the miners' cause.

Many women found their lives were changed drastically by being involved in the Miners Strike.

We speak to a few of the women who were involved in local Women Against Pit Closures groups. Read a bit more about them below.

Barbara Jackson, former member of Sheffield WAPC

Barbara Jackson (formerly Drabble)

Barbara Jackson (formerly Drabble) grew up in Sheffield and was 39 at the time of the Miners Strike in 1984-5.

She had a white collar job at the National Coal Board offices on Queen Street, Sheffield close to the Cathedral.

Although Barbara had no family mining connections, she felt so strongly about the miners strike that she went on strike for the whole year - she was one of only a handful of women who did.

Picketing the Coal Board in Sheffield, 1984

Nine people from Barbara's office picketed the National Coal Board building for the duration of the year-long strike, with five of them representing the pickets each day. At the time of the strike Barbara had one teenage daughter. She now lives near Graves Park in Sheffield.

You can read and hear more from Barbara by clicking on the link below.

Caroline Poland

Caroline Poland's partner Dave was a striking miner who worked at Thurcroft colliery which was close to Sheffield.

Caroline Poland, former member of Sheffield WAPC

At the time of the strike, Caroline had a one-year-old son but because they lived in a shared house the were supported financially by their housemates, to some extent.

Caroline's involvement in Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures continued in 1993 when she was involved in setting up a Women's Pit Camp at Houghton Main in protest against the announcements of the closures of another 31 pits.

Caroline now lives near Meersbrook Park in Sheffield. Read more about Caroline and hear her about Women Against Pit Closures in her own words by clicking on the links below.

Orgreave, 1984 Β© John

Lesley Boulton

Lesley Boulton became involved in Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures from a political point of view rather than because she had any mining connections.

She is the subject of a famous photograph by John Harris who spent the year on the picket lines photographing key moments of the Miners Strike.

Lesley Boulton at home in 2009

In the photograph, Lesley is holding a camera and cowering from a mounted policeman with a baton raised - about to crack her on the head.

What happened next? Read and hear the moments in Lesley's own words by clicking on the link below.

At the time of the strike Lesley had teenage children. She now lives in Pittsmoor, Sheffield.

Betty Cook, Women Against Pit Closures

Betty Cook

Betty Cook was a traditional miner's wife in Barnsley. She said she had "cried through the 1972 and 1974 strikes" and when the 1984 Miners Strike came along, she decided she wasn't going to stay at home and cry again - "I'm going to get up and I'm going to do something about it. He [ex-husband] can stay at home and I'll do the picketing."

Betty talked to Toby Foster in March 2009 about picketing, travelling the world with Women Against Pit Closures and doing the things that the men couldn't do.

Jackie Keating

Jackie Keating lived in Brampton, the village where the Cortonwood pit was based. Jackie's husband and father were both miners; her husband was arrested on the picket line in June 1984 - the morning of the Battle of Orgreave.

Christmas cards by Sheffield WAPC, 1984

Jackie recalls that they saved up bits and pieces over the weeks to make sure the kids weren't affected by the hard Christmas and although their small children remembered that "Dad was home a lot" around that period, they didn't notice the hard times that Christmas.

But she says her daughter wouldn't trust the police for a long time after seeing some of the events of the miners strike...

Jackie's book about the strike, 'Counting the Cost', is held at Sheffield Libraries.

Read more about Jackie's experiences and the other things that Women Against Pit Closures did. Click on the link below.