One of the themes that keeps on cropping up during the early run of Radio Wivenhoe Wiv Chat recordings is that of the Miners Strike and the role that Wivenhoe had to play.
This was a period that helped to politicise me personally, although I was caught up in the “scabland” of the North Notts coalfields, and not the North Essex estuary wilds.
Wivenhoe also appears to have been caught up in what was an incredibly ugly, emotive and ultimately social landscape changer in the UK.
I have read the relevant chapters in Butler’s book, as well as A Prospect of Wivenhoe; I have spoken with many local folk who helped to support the miners in Wivenhoe during the brief period when Wivenhoe became the centre for the struggle.
I have even wandered down to West Quay and failed to imagine how such a peaceful residential area was once the brief epicentre for social and industrial action.
And now I have been able to see the rare TV footage of Wivenhoe becoming embroiled in the Miners Strike.
With many thanks, as ever, to Mr Mule, here we have the Inside Out broadcast that was put together to remember this epochal moment in social history that was played out right here within Wivenhoe.
I’m not sure when it was first broadcast, but I’d hazard a guess of relatively recently, given the scenery, fashion sense and youthful looks of Mr Mule.
It’s not such the hyperlocal social history that interests me - the physical geography of the area is also incredibly fascinating. Standing on the roundabout outside The Station, and it is indeed a different world away when you see TV images of the old Wivenhoe Port.
Many many thanks to Mr Mule for sharing this footage. I am happy for m’blog to become a local online archive for any material Wivenhoe folk feel worthy of sharing.
Thanks for sharing this Jason. It’s a bit of local history that I was unaware of, but hey, I’m new here.
My wife has often spoken about how a school friend’s family in Brighlingsea had miners staying during the strike, but it seems she was never sure why, until now.
You should have a read of “Strike breaking in Essex” by Moira Abdel-Rahim which gives an amazing account of the action in Wivenhoe as well as the surrounding areas. Police tactics and civil rights changes that were outrageous at the time are now a part of our lives.
Moira used to come around to our house, sometimes, when she was writing that book. Interesting woman. There are lots of stories about the strike, most of which, even 27 years later, it’s best to stay away from.
As for the making of the documentary, I can’t even remember what year it was but it may have been early 2008. I can remember that much of it was filmed in a freezing wind and I had some sort of a fevery cold. It was pretty difficult trying to organise the interviewees, too. At first, no-one wanted to play ball. The Miners union were as cagey as the police. We couldn’t find any miners at first. A few of the main players were actually dead, Wivenhovians and, sadly, a few of the miners too. One of them, who became politicised as a result of the strike, having lost his job for good, ended up dead in a canal in Amsterdam with a couple of bullets in his head. As I said in an earlier account, the police alos reaped a bitter harvest from this — and the subsequent Battle of the Beanfield. As a result of being used in lieu of a ‘third force’, they lost a lot of public sympathy, a thing which even Blair’s touchy-feely, accent-on -assistance-rather-than-restraint makeover failed to really repair. The Miner’s Strike became a totem for the right. Its ramifications were deep and long-lasting. Politically, it was redolent of the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings. The very fabric of the English and how we were (and are) was altered. In some ways, we are still living in Thatcher’s Britain. A proportion of this situation can be attributed to the Left of the time, who, typically, stood there rather arrogant and incredulous, watching themselves being outflanked by a Right, whom they’d vastly underestimated in both strength and guile. Still what do I know? I’m only a dumb old rocker.
Thanks for the tip Jon. Colchester library seems to have a copy of Moira’s book. I’ll check it out.