Changing Ownership and Employment

Abstract

Changes in communities and collieries reinforced economic security in the coalfields. Communities were subject to substantial divisions of class and gender but became more cohesive after nationalisation. Economic diversification helped, bringing a widening range of employment opportunities for coalfield women. Community security was weakened slightly by migration, encouraged by policy-makers, but strengthened by the major advances of new housing and local authority ownership. At workplace level there were continuities from private to public ownership, with security improved through union mobilisation and collective state action. Village Pits established before the First World War were redeveloped after nationalisation and remained important in the 1970s. New Mines in the 1920s and 1930s included enhanced welfare amenities secured by trade union pressure. Cosmopolitan Collieries from the late 1950s came at a cost, with local pit closures and miners travelling greater distances, but greater long-term security was promised. Moral economy expectations were satisfied: restructuring involved meaningful input from the miners and improved their economic and social standing.