On Behalf of the People: Work and Community in the Nationalised British Coal Industry, 1947-1994

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council

Value

£806,000(FEC)

Collaborators

Centre for Business in Society, Coventry University
University of Wolverhampton
National Mining Museum for England
National Mining Museum, Scotland
Big Pit National Coal Museum, Wales

Project team

Professor Keith Gildart (PI) (University of Wolverhampton)

Dr Andrew Perchard (Co-I) (CBiS, Coventry University)

Project objectives

This 3 year study will conduct a revised history of the nationalised British coal industry (1947-1994), examining this from a macro-, meso-, and micro-, perspective.

Impact statement

This project will impact on range of museums, trade unions, community groups, heritage societies, former miners and their communities/families, colleges, schools, and the general public. The impact will be sustained through the partner organisations: the national mining museums of England, Scotland and Wales and the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU). It will also be extended through links and networks developed with organisations that are still existence in former mining communities including the National Union of Mineworkers; the British Association of Colliery Management; the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies, and Shotfirers; the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation and miners’ institutes and welfare centres. The project will generate new insights and material that will strengthen and extend the holdings of the mining museums and repositories of archives such as the People’s History Museum, Manchester and the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick, and the Working Class Movement Library, Salford. In the coalfields the project will impact on the collection, preservation and analysis of miners’ memories. Impact outputs include:

On Behalf of the People interactive website
Travelling exhibition in former coalfield localities
Education courses for the GFTU, schools and colleges

Follow project updates on twitter: @NCB1947