101-397: Nantgarw is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf , Wales, near Cardiff . From an electoral and administrative perspective Nantgarw falls within the ward of Taffs Well , a village some 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (4 km) south, but historically fell within the boundaries of Caerphilly , which is a major town located less than 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (4 km) to
202-551: A Special National Delegate Conference was held where there was a vote on whether to hold a national ballot or not. The NUM delegates voted 69–54 not to have a national ballot, a position argued for by Arthur Scargill. Scargill states: "Our special conference was held on 19 April. McGahey , Heathfield and I were aware from feedback that a slight majority of areas favoured the demand for a national strike ballot; therefore, we were expecting and had prepared for that course of action with posters, ballot papers and leaflets. A major campaign
303-506: A ballot from January 1981, in which 85.6% of the members voted to strike if any pit was threatened with closure on economic grounds. The motion was passed with regard to the closure of Orgreave Colliery, which prompted a two-week strike. The NUM executive approved the decision in Yorkshire to invoke the ballot result as binding on 8 March 1984. Nicholls ruled that the 1981 ballot result was "too remote in time [with]... too much change in
404-508: A county borough, and thus independent from the administrative county it would otherwise come under. Some cities and towns were already independent counties corporate , and most were to become county boroughs. Originally ten county boroughs were proposed; Bristol , Hull , Newcastle upon Tyne and Nottingham , which were already counties, and Birmingham , Bradford , Leeds , Liverpool , Manchester , and Sheffield , which were not. The Local Government Act 1888 as eventually passed required
505-477: A decentralised regional structure and certain regions were seen as more militant than others. Scotland, South Wales and Kent were militant and had some communist officials, whereas the Midlands were much less militant. The only nationally coordinated actions in the 1984–1985 strike were the mass pickets at Orgreave . In the more militant mining areas, strikebreakers were reviled and never forgiven for betraying
606-540: A development scheme in 1937, but work was suspended when World War II broke out in 1939. A later project to re-open the colliery was approved by the Ministry of Fuel and Power in 1946, and after nationalisation in 1947, the National Coal Board invested £5 million on modern surface constructions and modern mining methods. Having survived the mass pit closures of the 1960s, the geographical problems meant
707-696: A farmer and property developer with libertarian political beliefs, did much to organise and fund working miners. On 25 May, a writ issued in the High Court by Colin Clark from Pye Hill Colliery, sponsored by Hart, was successful in forbidding the Nottinghamshire area from instructing that the strike was official and to be obeyed. Similar actions were successful in Lancashire and South Wales. In September, Lord Justice Nicholls heard two cases, in
808-483: A handful of houses in close proximity. After the closure of the Nantgarw/Windsor Colliery and Coking works 18 months after the miners' strike, the site was developed as Parc Nantgarw, joined to the larger Trefforest Industrial Estate . All that now remains of Nantgarw colliery are two small concrete pyramids marking the sites of the two shafts and a commemorative winding wheel . Parc Nantgarw
909-558: A major coal seam at Windsor became unworkable, while in 1984 an overtime ban led directly to the 1984/5 UK miners strike spreading to South Wales. Although profitable post the strike, both sites of the whole unit closed as part of the NCB regional review on 6 November 1986. The village declined after the 1969 construction of the A470, which destroyed most of the historic old village. The only original buildings that remain are Nantgarw Pottery and
1010-526: A minority voted in favour, well short of the required 55% majority. In protest at a pay offer of 5.2%, the NUM instituted an overtime ban in November 1983, which remained in place at the onset of the strike. Thatcher expected Scargill to force a confrontation, and in response she set up a defence in depth. She believed that the excessive costs of increasingly inefficient collieries had to end in order to grow
1111-528: A national ballot was reduced from two-thirds in favour to 55% in 1971. There was then success in the national strike in 1972 , an overtime ban, and the subsequent strike in 1974 (which led to the Three-Day Week ). The NUM's success in bringing down the Heath government demonstrated its power, but it caused resentment at their demand to be treated as a special case in wage negotiations. The NUM had
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#17327725791481212-409: A population of 200,000 or more should become one-tier "new counties", with "new county boroughs" having a population of 60,000 – 200,000 being "most-purpose authorities", with the county council of the administrative county providing certain limited services. The report envisaged the creation of 47 two-tiered "new counties", 21 one-tiered "new counties" and 63 "new county boroughs". The recommendations of
1313-624: A population of over 50,000 except in the case of existing counties corporate. This resulted in 61 county boroughs in England and two in Wales ( Cardiff and Swansea ). Several exceptions were allowed, mainly for historic towns, including Bath and Dudley , which would still remain below the 50,000 limit by the time of the 1901 census. Some of the smaller counties corporate— Berwick upon Tweed , Lichfield , Poole , Carmarthen and Haverfordwest —did not become county boroughs, although Canterbury , with
1414-417: A population under 25,000, did. The county councils and county borough councils came into operation on 1 April 1889. Just seven months later, on 9 November 1889, the city of Oxford was the first borough which had not been made a county borough by the 1888 Act to be elevated to county borough status. Various other new county boroughs were constituted in the following decades, generally as more boroughs reached
1515-537: A result of the " demonstration effect " and trade union power in general diminished. Three deaths resulted from events related to the strike. The much-reduced coal industry was privatised in December 1994, ultimately becoming UK Coal . In 1983, Britain had 175 working pits, all of which had closed by the end of 2015. Poverty increased in former coal mining areas, and in 1994 Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire
1616-469: A series of stalled developments of the colliery until post World War II , when new workings and a coking coal plant were developed by 1951. A new village settlement was then built on the hillside behind the colliery. Nantgarw was formerly served by two railway stations: Nantgarw (High Level) Halt on the Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway , which opened in 1904, and Nantgarw (Low Level) Halt on
1717-407: A six-month supply of coal to win a strike. In 1982, NUM members accepted a 9.3% pay rise, rejecting their leaders' call for a strike. Most pits proposed for closure in 1981 were closed on a case-by-case basis by the colliery review procedure, and the NCB cut employment by 41,000 between March 1981 and March 1984. The effect of closures was lessened by transfers to other pits and the opening up of
1818-456: A speech to the NUM conference in Perth on 4 July 1983: "A fight back against this Government's policies will inevitably take place outside rather than inside Parliament. When I talk about 'extra-parliamentary action' there is a great outcry in the press and from leading Tories about my refusal to accept the democratic will of the people. I am not prepared to accept policies elected by a minority of
1919-498: A strike, a compromise would probably have been forced on the NCB. Files later made public showed that the government had an informant inside the Trades Union Congress (TUC), passing information about negotiations. In 2009, Scargill wrote that the settlement agreed with NACODS and the NCB would have ended the strike and said, "The monumental betrayal by NACODS has never been explained in a way that makes sense." In
2020-474: A target for aggressive and sometimes violent picketing as Scargill's pickets tried to stop local miners from working. Lancashire miners were reluctant to strike, but most refused to cross picket lines formed by the Yorkshire NUM. Picketing in Lancashire was less aggressive and is credited with a more sympathetic response from the local miners. The ' Battle of Orgreave ' took place on 18 June 1984 at
2121-483: A two-week local strike over the closure of Orgreave Colliery , but the ballot result was later invoked to justify strikes over other closures, including Cortonwood in 1984. In February 1981, the government announced plans to close 23 pits across the country but the threat of a national strike was enough to force a back down. Coal stocks would last only six weeks, after which Britain would shut down and people would demand concessions. Thatcher realised she needed at least
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#17327725791482222-552: Is a further education college for adult learners. The college has a campus in Nantgarw. Opened on 11 March 1907 with 55 children, it was destroyed by fire in April 1933. The school moved to Wheeler's Billiard Hall, the school was reopened on 2 September 1935. An extension providing interior toilets, a small kitchen and an office for the head teacher was built in 1979. The school is now closed. County borough County borough
2323-751: Is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent term used in Scotland was a county of city . They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales , but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in Northern Ireland . In
2424-576: Is home to the headquarters of Cadw (the Welsh equivalent of English Heritage ), and a large office for the newly relocated Santia Consulting . The social side of the estate provides a cinema , indoor 10 pin bowling and various restaurants. GE Aviation Wales , located on the Caerphilly Road, employs about 1500 people in the testing, repair and maintenance of aircraft engines , including GE90 , GP7200 , CFM56 and RB211 . Coleg y Cymoedd
2525-751: Is the home of the Nantgarw tradition of folk dancing. Nantgarw lies on the River Taff . It is known for its porcelain , produced in between 1813 and 1814, and later between 1817 and 1820 at the Nantgarw Pottery , commemorated at the Nantgarw Chinaworks Museum . The potter and painter William Billingsley is credited with starting the porcelain trade here. After the building of the Glamorganshire Canal , by
2626-523: The Cardiff Railway , which opened in 1911. The Low Level station did not last long after the 1921 Railways Act, and closed in 1931 (though the line continued to serve Nantgarw Colliery until the late 1980s. The High Level station closed in 1956. Craig Yr Allt Colliery was situated south of Nantgarw village. However, whenever the Taff River flooded, water frequently entered its workings, and it
2727-704: The House of Commons , despite the approval of the Local Government Board – the removal of Cambridge from Cambridgeshire would have reduced the income of Cambridgeshire County Council by over half. Upon recommendation of a commission chaired by the Earl of Onslow , the population threshold was raised to 75,000 in 1926, by the Local Government (County Boroughs and Adjustments) Act 1926 , which also made it much harder to expand boundaries. The threshold
2828-536: The Republic of Ireland they remain in existence but have been renamed cities under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001 . The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 re-introduced the term for certain " principal areas " in Wales. Scotland did not have county boroughs but instead had counties of cities . These were abolished on 16 May 1975. All four Scottish cities of the time— Aberdeen , Dundee , Edinburgh , and Glasgow —were included in this category. There
2929-656: The Selby Coalfield where working conditions and wages were relatively favourable. Localised strikes occurred at Kinneil Colliery in Scotland and Lewis Merthyr Colliery in Wales. The industry's Select Committee heard that 36,040 of the 39,685 redundancies between 1973 and 1982 were of men aged 55 and over, and redundancy pay was increased substantially in 1981 and 1983. The NUM balloted its members for national strikes in January 1982, October 1982 and March 1983 regarding pit closures and restrained wages and each time
3030-541: The 1841 census of the 300 residents, about 60 owed their living to work associated directly with the canal. But the development of drift mines and the development of the Taff Vale Railway , meant that by 1875 the majority of the villages residents were colliers. The development of the village stopped until the 1910 development of the Nantgarw Colliery, but various geographical problems resulted in
3131-489: The 1972 agreement which led to a second ballot. MacGregor suggested that deputies could be replaced by outsiders as Ronald Reagan had done during the 1981 airline strike . In September, for the first time, NACODS voted to strike with a vote of 81% in favour. The government then made concessions over the review procedure for unprofitable collieries, much to the anger of MacGregor, and a deal negotiated by North Yorkshire NCB Director Michael Eaton persuaded NACODS to call off
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3232-455: The 50,000 minimum and then promoted Acts to constitute them county boroughs. The granting of county borough status was the subject of much disagreement between the large municipal boroughs and the county councils. The population limit provided county councils with a disincentive to allow mergers or boundary amendments to districts that would create authorities with large populations, as this would allow them to seek county borough status and remove
3333-457: The British electorate. I am not prepared quietly to accept the destruction of the coal industry, nor am I willing to see our social services decimated. This totally undemocratic Government can now easily push through whatever laws it chooses. Faced with possible parliamentary destruction of all that is good and compassionate in our society, extra-parliamentary action will be the only course open to
3434-527: The Commissions did not complete their work before being dissolved, a handful of new county boroughs were constituted between 1964 and 1968. Luton , Torbay , and Solihull gained county borough status. Additionally, the Teesside was formed from a merger of the existing county borough of Middlesbrough , and the municipal boroughs of Stockton-on-Tees , Redcar and Thornaby ; Warley was formed from
3535-491: The East Staffordshire district, and Teesside, which was split up between three non-metropolitan districts. County boroughs to be abolished prior to 1974 were: The county boroughs of Belfast and Derry were created by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 . In Northern Ireland , local government has not used county boroughs since 1973, but they remain in use for lieutenancy . For administrative purposes
3636-515: The Local Government Acts of 1888 (that created them) and 1972 (that abolished them from 1974). Only four districts with more than one county borough were formed: Wirral , Sandwell , Sefton and Kirklees . Elsewhere, county boroughs usually formed the core or all of a district named after the county borough – with the exceptions of Halifax, whose metropolitan district was named Calderdale , Burton upon Trent, which became part of
3737-522: The NCB announced that the agreement reached after the 1974 strike was obsolete, and that to reduce government subsidies, 20 collieries would close with a loss of 20,000 jobs. Many communities in Northern England , Scotland and Wales would lose their primary source of employment. Scargill said the government had a long-term strategy to close more than 70 pits. The government denied the claim and MacGregor wrote to every NUM member claiming Scargill
3838-555: The NCB. The calculation of these operating losses was disputed, with the Marxist historian John Saville declaring costs other than operating losses were included in the data as part of a scheme to undermine trade unions. By 1984, the richest seams of coal had been increasingly worked out and the remaining coal was more and more expensive to reach. The solution was mechanisation and greater efficiency per worker, making many miners redundant due to overcapacity of production. The industry
3939-678: The NUM funds, except in Scotland, because the judges deemed that the Scottish area had acted within the rules of the Union" – David Hamilton MP, Midlothian. Scargill claims "It was essential to present a united response to the NCB and we agreed that, if the coal board planned to force pit closures on an area by area basis, then we must respond at least initially on that same basis. The NUM's rules permitted areas to take official strike action if authorised by our national executive committee in accordance with Rule 41." The Nottinghamshire NUM supported
4040-488: The NUM was led by Arthur Scargill , a militant trade unionist and socialist, with strong leanings towards communism. Scargill was a vocal opponent of Thatcher's government. In March 1983, he stated "The policies of this government are clear – to destroy the coal industry and the NUM". Scargill wrote in the NUM journal The Miner : "Waiting in the wings, wishing to chop us to pieces, is Yankee steel butcher MacGregor. This 70-year-old multi-millionaire import, who massacred half
4141-617: The NUM's support for the regional strikes in Yorkshire and Scotland, and called for action from NUM members in all other areas but decided not to hold a nationwide vote which was used by his opponents to delegitimise the strike. The strike was almost universally observed in South Wales , Yorkshire , Scotland , North East England and Kent , but there was less support across the Midlands and in North Wales. Nottinghamshire became
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4242-466: The NUM. Unlike Nottinghamshire, the leadership in Leicestershire never attempted to enforce the strike, and an official, Jack Jones, had publicly criticised Scargill. At some pits in Nottinghamshire – Ollerton, Welbeck and Clipstone – roughly half the workforce stayed in the NUM. The TUC neither recognised nor condemned the new union. The UDM was eventually de facto recognised when
4343-704: The National Coal Board. He had turned the British Steel Corporation from one of the least efficient steel-makers in Europe to one of the most efficient, bringing the company into near profit. Success was achieved at the expense of halving the workforce in two years and he had overseen a 14-week national strike in 1980. His tough reputation raised expectations that coal jobs would be cut on a similar scale and confrontations between MacGregor and Scargill seemed inevitable. On 19 April 1984
4444-557: The Orgreave Coking Plant near Rotherham , which striking miners were attempting to blockade. The confrontation, between about 5,000 miners and the same number of police, broke into violence after police on horseback charged with truncheons drawn – 51 picketers and 72 policemen were injured. Other less well known, but bloody, battles between pickets and police took place, for example, in Maltby, South Yorkshire . During
4545-634: The UK's economy. The mining industry was effectively a closed shop . Although not official policy, employment of non-unionised labour would have led to a mass walkout of mineworkers. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) came into being in 1945 and in 1947 most collieries in Britain were nationalised (958 nationalised, 400 private). Demand for coal was high in the years following the Second World War, and Polish refugees were drafted to work in
4646-628: The Yorkshire Area, which was later challenged in court. The NUM President, Arthur Scargill , made the strike official across Britain on 12 March 1984, but the lack of a national ballot beforehand caused controversy. The NUM strategy was to cause a severe energy shortage of the sort that had won victory in the 1972 strike . The government strategy, designed by Margaret Thatcher , was threefold: to build up ample coal stocks, to keep as many miners at work as possible, and to use police to break up attacks by pickets on working miners. The critical element
4747-563: The branch membership of the Area since then for that ballot to be capable of justifying a call to strike action two and a half years later." He ruled that the Yorkshire area could not refer to the strike as "official", although he did not condemn the strike as "illegal" as he did in the case of the national strike and the North Derbyshire strike. Scargill referred to the ruling as "another attempt by an unelected judge to interfere in
4848-407: The closure of most of Britain's collieries (coal mines). Many observers regard the strike as "the most bitter industrial dispute in British history". The number of person-days of work lost to the strike was over 26 million, making it the largest since the 1926 General Strike . The journalist Seumas Milne said of the strike that "it has no real parallel – in size, duration and impact – anywhere in
4949-441: The closure of the mine working in 1974, and the unit merged with Windsor Colliery , Abertridwr, Caerphilly from 1975. By 1979, the combined Nantgarw/Windsor Colliery employed around 650 men, producing over 4,000 tons of coal per week, making a profit of over £0.5 million. The unit lost £7 million in 1981, employing: 142 on development; 131 on the coalface; 197 below the ground; 101 on the surface. In 1982 output declined steeply as
5050-449: The coal-mining industry continued to fall from 180,000 in 1985 to 70,000 in the year 2000. Coal mining, nationalised by Clement Attlee 's Labour government in 1947, was managed by the National Coal Board (NCB) under Ian MacGregor in 1984. As in most of Europe, the industry was heavily subsidised. In 1982–1983, the operating loss per tonne was £3.05, and international market prices for coal were about 25% cheaper than that charged by
5151-614: The commission extended to a review of the division of functions between different tiers of local government, and thus fell outside its terms of reference, and its report was not acted upon. The next attempt at reform was by the Local Government Act 1958, which established the Local Government Commission for England and the Local Government Commission for Wales to carry out reviews of existing local government structures and recommend reforms. Although
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#17327725791485252-536: The community. In 1984, some pit villages had no other industries for many miles around. In South Wales , miners showed a high degree of solidarity, as they came from isolated villages where most workers were employed in the pits, had similar lifestyles, and had an evangelical religious style based on Methodism that led to an ideology of egalitarianism. The dominance of mining in these local economies led Oxford professor Andrew Glyn to conclude that no pit closure could be beneficial for government revenue. From 1981,
5353-433: The county borough of Smethwick and the non-county boroughs of Oldbury and Rowley Regis ; and West Hartlepool was merged with Hartlepool . Following these changes, there was a total of 79 county boroughs in England. The Commission also recommended the downgrading of Barnsley to be a non-county borough, but this was not carried out. The county boroughs of East Ham , West Ham and Croydon were abolished in 1965 with
5454-418: The creation of Greater London and went on to form parts of London boroughs . The remaining county boroughs were abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 , and replaced with non-metropolitan districts and metropolitan districts , all beneath county councils in a two-tier structure. In Greater London and the metropolitan counties the lower tier districts retained a wider range of powers than in
5555-476: The creation of a boundary commission to bring coordination to local government reform. The policy in the paper also ruled out the creation of new county boroughs in Middlesex "owing to its special problems" . The Local Government Boundary Commission was appointed on 26 October 1945, under the chairmanship of Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve , delivering its report in 1947. The commission recommended that towns with
5656-436: The crossing of picket lines even without a NACODS union vote for strike action. Initially the threshold for striking was not met; although a majority had voted for strike action, it was not enough. However, later during the strike 82% did vote for strike action. In January 1981, the Yorkshire area of the NUM held a successful ballot to approve strike action over any pit threatened with closure on economic grounds. This led to
5757-467: The east. The original village was almost entirely destroyed by the development of the A470 trunk road, which was situated at the location of the current A468 junction. Located close to the A470, Nantgarw is within easy reach of the town of Pontypridd ( 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (9 km) to the northwest) and Cardiff City centre (around 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (12 km) further south). Nantgarw
5858-451: The economy. She planned to close inefficient pits and depend more on imported coal, oil, gas and nuclear. She appointed hardliners to key positions, set up a high level planning committee, and allocated funds from the highly profitable electrical supply system to stockpile at least six months' worth of coal. Thatcher's team set up mobile police units so that forces from outside the strike areas could neutralise efforts by flying pickets to stop
5959-475: The executive voted for him to do so. By the end of January 1985, around £5 million of NUM assets had been recovered. A Court of Session decision in Edinburgh ruled that Scottish miners had acted within their rights by taking local ballots on a show of hands and so union funds in Scotland could not be sequestered. "During the strike, the one area they couldn't touch was Scotland. They were sequestering
6060-539: The first month of the strike, the NCB secured a court injunction to restrict picketing in Nottinghamshire, but the Energy Minister , Peter Walker forbade MacGregor from invoking it as the government considered it would antagonise the miners and unite them behind the NUM. Legal challenges were brought by groups of working miners, who subsequently organised as the Working Miners' Committee. David Hart ,
6161-488: The first, North Derbyshire miners argued that the strike was illegal both at area level, as a majority of its miners had voted against, and at national level, as there had been no ballot. In the second, two miners from Manton Colliery , in the Yorkshire area but geographically in North Nottinghamshire, argued that the area-level strike in Yorkshire was illegal. Miners at Manton had overwhelmingly voted against
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#17327725791486262-460: The functions of both boroughs and counties). Although unitary authorities are functionally equivalent to county boroughs, only in Wales is the title given official recognition by Act of Parliament. [REDACTED] The map depicts the county boroughs in England immediately prior to their abolition in 1974. County boroughs in Wales and Northern Ireland are not shown. This table shows those county boroughs that existed in England and Wales between
6363-526: The government deemed "uneconomic" in the coal industry, which had been nationalised in 1947. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency. Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , who wanted to reduce the power of the trade unions . The NUM
6464-528: The miners. Sensitive to the impact of proposed closures, miners in various coalfields began strike action. In Yorkshire , miners at Manvers , Cadeby , Silverwood , Kiveton Park and Yorkshire Main were on unofficial strike for other issues before official action was called. More than 6,000 miners were on strike from 5 March at Cortonwood and Bullcliffe Wood, near Wakefield. Neither pit's reserves were exhausted. Bullcliffe Wood had been under threat, but Cortonwood had been considered safe. Action
6565-509: The non-metropolitan counties. This situation did not persist long. In 1986 the metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council were abolished, returning the metropolitan boroughs to a status equivalent to the former county boroughs, but sharing some powers (police and transport for example). In the 1990s, many of the nonmetropolitan former county boroughs were reformed again as unitary authorities – essentially
6666-540: The old county borough, in other cases much larger). Burton upon Trent became an unparished area in the East Staffordshire borough, and has now been divided into several parishes. In Wales, several principal areas are county boroughs: For all practical purposes, county boroughs are exactly the same as the other principal areas of Wales called " counties " (including " cities and counties ") as all these areas are run by unitary authorities (i.e.: have
6767-540: The original model existed until 2001. Under the Local Government Act 2001 (which replaced most existing local government legislation in Ireland), the term "County Borough" was abolished and replaced with "City" (and hence, "Corporation" with "City Council"). However Kilkenny , while a traditional city, was never a county borough. Under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 , the borough of Kilkenny
6868-560: The pits. Over time, coal's share in the energy market declined relative to oil and nuclear. Large-scale closures of collieries occurred in the 1960s, which led to migration of miners from the run-down coalfields (Scotland, Wales, Lancashire, the north-east of England) to Yorkshire and the Midlands coalfields. After a period of inaction from the NUM leadership over employment cuts, there was an unofficial strike in 1969 , after which many more militant candidates were elected to NUM leadership. The threshold for endorsement of strike action in
6969-589: The same as a county borough. As a result, by 2015, most former county boroughs were either metropolitan boroughs or unitary authorities with a status similar to the old county boroughs. In England, most of those former county boroughs that did not gain unitary authority status— Barrow-in-Furness , Burnley , Canterbury , Carlisle , Chester , Eastbourne , Gloucester , Great Yarmouth , Hastings , Ipswich , Lincoln , Northampton , Norwich , Oxford , Preston , and Worcester —have given their names to non-unitary local government districts (in some cases coterminous with
7070-578: The same as the attitude of the working class in Germany when the Nazis came to power. It does not mean that because at some stage you elect a government that you tolerate its existence. You oppose it". He also said he would oppose a second-term Thatcher government "as vigorously as I possibly can". After the election, Scargill called for extra-parliamentary action against the Conservative government in
7171-472: The steel workforce in less than three years, is almost certainly brought in to wield the axe on pits. It's now or never for Britain's mineworkers. This is the final chance – while we still have the strength – to save our industry". On 12 May 1983, in response to being questioned on how he would respond if the Conservatives were re-elected in the general election , Scargill replied: "My attitude would be
7272-533: The strike action. The results of the review procedure were not binding on the NCB, and the NUM rejected the agreement. Reviews for Cadeby in Yorkshire and Bates in Northumberland concluded that the pits could stay open but the NCB overruled and closed them. The abandonment of strike plans when most of their demands had not been met led to conspiracy theories on the motives of NACODS leaders. MacGregor later admitted that if NACODS had gone ahead with
7373-537: The strike, 11,291 people were arrested, mostly for breach of the peace or obstructing roads whilst picketing, of whom 8,392 were charged and between 150 and 200 were imprisoned. At least 9,000 mineworkers were dismissed after being arrested whilst picketing even when no charges were brought. After the 1980 steel strike, many hauliers blacklisted drivers who refused to cross picket lines to prevent them obtaining work, and so more drivers crossed picket lines in 1984–1985 than in previous disputes. Picketing failed to have
7474-526: The strike, but most of its members continued to work and many considered the strike unconstitutional given their majority vote against a strike and absence of a ballot for a national strike. As many working miners felt the NUM was not doing enough to protect them from intimidation from pickets, a demonstration was organised on May Day in Mansfield , in which the representative Ray Chadburn was shouted down, and fighting ensued between protesters for and against
7575-406: The strike, but police had advised that their safety could not be guaranteed. The NUM was not represented at the hearing. The High Court ruled that the NUM had breached its constitution by calling a strike without holding a ballot. Although Nicholls did not order the NUM to hold a ballot, he forbade the union from disciplining members who crossed picket lines. The strike in Yorkshire relied on
7676-429: The strike. In NUM elections in summer 1984, members in Nottinghamshire voted out most of the leaders who had supported the strike, so that 27 of 31 newly elected were opposed to the strike. The Nottinghamshire NUM then opposed the strike openly and stopped payments to local strikers. The national NUM attempted to introduce "Rule 51", to discipline area leaders who were working against national policy. The action
7777-405: The tax base from the administrative county. County boroughs to be constituted in this era were a mixed bag, including some towns that would continue to expand such as Bournemouth and Southend-on-Sea . Other towns such as Burton upon Trent and Dewsbury were not to increase in population much past 50,000. 1913 saw the attempts of Luton and Cambridge to gain county borough status defeated in
7878-602: The transport of coal to power stations. It used the National Recording Centre (NRC), set up in 1972 by the Association of Chief Police Officers for England and Wales linking 43 police forces to enable police forces to travel to assist in major disturbances. Scargill played into her hands by ignoring the buildup of coal stocks and calling the strike at the end of winter when demand for coal was declining. In 1983, Thatcher appointed Ian MacGregor to head
7979-644: The two county boroughs in Northern Ireland were replaced with two larger districts ( Belfast and Londonderry ). The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 created county boroughs in Ireland. Under the Act, four former counties corporate ( Cork , Dublin , Limerick and Waterford ) became county boroughs. Galway became a county borough in 1986. In the Republic of Ireland , the relevant legislation remained in force (although amended), and county boroughs on
8080-442: The union's affairs." He was fined £1,000 (paid by an anonymous businessman), and the NUM was fined £200,000. When the union refused to pay, an order was made to sequester the union's assets, but they had been transferred abroad. In October 1984, the NUM executive voted to cooperate with the court to recover the funds, despite opposition from Scargill, who stated in court that he was only apologising for his contempt of court because
8181-406: The unions. In the post-war consensus , policy allowed for closures only where agreed to by the workers, who in turn received guaranteed economic security. Consensus did not apply when closures were enforced and redundant miners had severely limited employment alternatives. The NUM's strike in 1974 played a major role in bringing down Edward Heath 's Conservative government. The party's response
8282-557: The widespread impact of earlier stoppages that led to blackouts and power cuts in the 1970s and electricity companies maintained supplies throughout the winter, the time of biggest demand. From September, some miners returned to work even where the strike had been universally observed. It led to an escalation of tension, and riots in Easington in Durham and Brampton Bierlow in Yorkshire. In April 1984, NACODS voted to strike but
8383-607: The working class and the Labour movement." Scargill also rejected the idea that pits that did not make a profit were "uneconomic": he claimed there was no such thing as an uneconomic pit and argued that no pits should close except due to geological exhaustion or safety. No mining could legally be done without being overseen by an overman or deputy. Their union, the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers (NACODS) with 17,000 members in 1984,
8484-460: The world". The NCB was encouraged to gear itself towards reduced subsidies in the early 1980s. After a strike was narrowly averted in February 1981, pit closures and pay restraint led to unofficial strikes. The main strike started on 6 March 1984 with a walkout at Cortonwood Colliery , which led to the NUM's Yorkshire Area's sanctioning of a strike on the grounds of a ballot result from 1981 in
8585-671: Was abandoned in 1878. Thomas Taylor of Pontypridd began the development of Nantgarw colliery in May 1910, near the base of the Caerphilly Syncline seam. The sinking of the twin shafts in 1911 reached the coal seam at a depth of more than 850 yards in 1915, placing them 2000 ft below sea level and making Nantgarw the deepest pit to be sunk in the South Wales Coalfield up to that time. Having suffered from various geographical issues, Powell Duffryn designed
8686-489: Was abolished, but the municipal district containing the administrative area of the former borough of Kilkenny would be known as the Municipal District of Kilkenny City. UK miners%27 strike (1984%E2%80%931985) Arthur Scargill Ian MacGregor The 1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike was a major industrial action within the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent closures of pits that
8787-414: Was an additional category of large burgh in the Scottish system (similar to a municipal borough in England and Wales), which were responsible for all services apart from police, education and fire. When county councils were first created in 1889, it was decided that to let them have authority over large towns or cities would be impractical, and so any large incorporated place would have the right to be
8888-420: Was appointed in May 1935 to "investigate whether the existing status of Merthyr Tydfil as a county borough should be continued, and if not, what other arrangements should be made" . The commission reported the following November, and recommended that Merthyr should revert to the status of a non-county borough, and that public assistance should be taken over by central government. In the event county borough status
8989-556: Was deceiving them and there were no plans to close any more pits than had already been announced. Cabinet papers released in 2014 indicate that MacGregor wished to close 75 pits over a three-year period. Meanwhile, the Thatcher government had prepared against a repeat of the effective 1974 industrial action by stockpiling coal, converting some power stations to burn heavy fuel oil, and recruiting fleets of road hauliers to transport coal in case sympathetic railwaymen went on strike to support
9090-482: Was divided over the action, which began in Yorkshire , and some mineworkers, especially in the Midlands , worked through the dispute. Few major trade unions supported the NUM, primarily using the argument of the absence of a vote at national level. Violent confrontations between flying pickets and police characterised the year-long strike, which ended in a decisive victory for the Conservative government and allowed
9191-436: Was less willing to take industrial action. Its constitution required a two-thirds majority for a national strike. During the 1972 strike, violent confrontations between striking NUM and non-striking NACODS members led to an agreement that NACODS members could stay off work without loss of pay if they were faced with aggressive picketing. Thus solidarity with striking NUM members could be shown by claims of violence preventing
9292-865: Was nicknamed the "star chamber court" by working miners (in reference to the Star Chamber in English history). It was prevented by an injunction from the High Court. Working miners in Nottinghamshire and South Derbyshire set up a new union: the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM). It attracted members from many isolated pits in England – including Agecroft and Parsonage in Lancashire, Chase Terrace and Trenton Workshops in Staffordshire, and Daw Mill in Warwickshire. Although most Leicestershire miners continued working, they voted to stay in
9393-571: Was prompted on 5 March by the NCB's announcement that five pits would be subject to "accelerated closure" in just five weeks; the other three were Herrington in County Durham, Snowdown in Kent and Polmaise in Scotland. The next day, pickets from Yorkshire appeared at pits in Nottinghamshire and Harworth Colliery closed after a mass influx of pickets amid claims that Nottinghamshire was " scabland in 1926". On 12 March 1984, Scargill declared
9494-464: Was raised to 100,000 by the Local Government Act 1958 . The viability of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil came into question in the 1930s. Due to a decline in the heavy industries of the town, by 1932 more than half the male population was unemployed, resulting in very high municipal rates in order to make public assistance payments. At the same time the population of the borough was lower than when it had been created in 1908. A royal commission
9595-697: Was ready to go for a "Yes" vote in a national strike ballot." McGahey said: "We shall not be constitutionalised out of a strike...Area by area will decide and there will be a domino effect". Without a national ballot, most miners in Nottinghamshire , Leicestershire , South Derbyshire , North Wales and the West Midlands kept on working during the strike, along with a sizeable minority in Lancashire . The police provided protection for working miners from aggressive picketing. On 6 March 1984,
9696-416: Was restructured between 1958 and 1967 in cooperation with the unions, with a halving of the workforce; offset by government and industry initiatives to provide alternative employment. Stabilisation occurred between 1968 and 1977, when closures were minimised with the support of the unions even though the broader economy slowed. The accelerated contraction imposed by Thatcher after 1979 was strenuously opposed by
9797-564: Was retained by the town, with the chairman of the Welsh Board of Health appointed as administrative adviser in 1936. After the Second World War the creation of new county boroughs in England and Wales was effectively suspended, pending a local government review. A government white paper published in 1945 stated that "it is expected that there will be a number of Bills for extending or creating county boroughs" and proposed
9898-479: Was short of the two-thirds majority that their constitution required. In areas where the strike was observed, most NACODS members did not cross picket lines and, under an agreement from the 1972 strike, stayed off work on full pay. When the number of strikebreakers increased in August, Merrick Spanton, the NCB personnel director, said he expected NACODS members to cross picket lines to supervise their work threatening
9999-479: Was the Ridley Plan , an internal report that was leaked to The Economist magazine and appeared in its 27 May 1978 issue. Ridley described how a future Conservative government could resist and defeat a major strike in a nationalised industry. In Ridley's opinion, trade union power in the UK was interfering with market forces, pushing up inflation, and the unions' undue political power had to be curbed to restore
10100-627: Was the NUM's failure to hold a national strike ballot. The strike was ruled illegal in September 1984, as no national ballot of NUM members had been held. It ended on 3 March 1985. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, the NUM's defeat significantly weakening the trade union movement . It was a major victory for Thatcher and the Conservative Party , with the Thatcher government able to consolidate their economic programme. The number of strikes fell sharply in 1985 as
10201-472: Was the poorest settlement in the country. While more than 1,000 collieries were working in the UK during the first half of the 20th century, by 1984 only 173 were still operating and employment had dropped from its peak of 1 million in 1922, down to 231,000 for the decade to 1982. This long-term decline in coal employment was common across the developed world; in the United States, employment in
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