n By Mark Charlton Metcalf
Kent trade unionists had shown great solidarity with many compositors and printers out alongside transport workers.
But the following day (May 12) the TUC called off the General Strike following pressure from government and the ruling classes. It was ended despite receiving enthusiastic support from strikers and trades councils.
It was a victory for Baldwin’s government.
Only the miners continued the fight. The following months saw support from local trades councils and the Labour Party who formed relief committees to raise money for miners’ wives and their families. At first, this helped miners to refuse to return, until on November 16 those employed at Tilmanstone Colliery in Kent, finally voted to do so.
It had been a heroic endeavour but the miners were eventually forced to return to work in November on much reduced terms and conditions. Many were blacklisted including miners in rural communities in Kent and Durham.
Later, Betteshanger, one of the Kent coalfields, proved an attraction for victimised miners. Over subsequent decades it became a militant workplace, especially in the 1984-85 year-long national miners’ strike.
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It was a terrible time. I saw the worst of the strike. No clothes, no shoes, no food … families couldn’t make ends meet. They were walking about with bayonets, with guns
Joseph Foster, striking miner’s son
Around 150,000 miners in County Durham had waged a brave battle too and received great backing from other trade unionists.
The Newcastle joint strike committee consisted of 14 organisations, including Unite heritage union, the TGWU. It backed electricity industry strikers and published its own newspaper, the Newcastle Workers’ Chronicle.
Rural based pits dominated Durham. Burnhope Colliery in Craighead Valley lies six miles north west of Durham City, home to the Durham Miners’ Gala since 1871.
Aged 14 back then, striking miner’s son Joseph Foster later recalled events there in 1926. “It was a terrible time. I saw the worst of the strike. No clothes, no shoes, no food … families couldn’t make ends meet.” He remembered soldiers being sent to Burnhope. “They were walking about with bayonets, with guns.”
31 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2026
Striking miners reading The British Worker journal
Many former military men were recruited to the police across County Durham.
Like many places the miners’ resistance was boosted by Labour authorities. In Durham the County Council provided millions of free school meals. Its chairman was Peter Lee, agent of the Durham Miners’ Association and the only trade unionist to have a town named after him in Britain. Peterlee is the birthplace of the author of this piece.
Despite this support it was insufficient to win the struggle. Durham held out returning to work for seven months, a month longer than other coalfields. For many though there was to be no return.
Victimised by the mine owners, they struck out for Kent, in the hope of a better life. With the Tories then introducing restrictive anti-union laws, hopes were placed by the whole labour movement in the election of a Labour government.
Dedicated to Harold Metcalf and Wilf Charlton from Easington Colliery, both locked out in 1926.
FIND OUT MORE
Visit the Kent Mining Musuem at Betteshanger Park, Sandwich Road, Deal, CT14 OBF. Or visit
kentminingmuseum.co.uk
All photos: Getty Images / Hulton Deutsch
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