Press Releases
Big Pit remembers — 25 years on
Date:
2009-03-06Throughout the spring this year, Big Pit: National Coal Museum will be hosting a season of events and exhibitions marking the 25th anniversary of the Miners' Strike, which changed the industrial landscape of Wales forever.
The season commences on March 12 with the launch of the newest edition of GLO, Big Pit's social history magazine, which concentrates on the 1984/5 Strike and tells the stories of some of the people from Wales involved in it, including pickets, police officers, colliery managers, politicians and celebrities.
Other highlights of the programme include:
- Big Pit's Annual Lecture on Saturday 4 April, where Mrs Mair Francis, wife of MP Dr Hywel Francis, will talk about how Women's Support Groups during the strike inspired the Dulais Opportunities for Voluntary Enterprise, a co-operative to help women to learn new skills and training.
- Reflections in Red. Poet Mike Jenkins will explore how political and social unrest can be reflected in poetry.
- Through My Eyes, one man's photographic account of the strike, a fascinating exhibition of previously unseen photographs capturing everyday scenes from the time. The exhibition runs from 22 May to early September.
Billy Bragg will also be making a special appearance in Blaenafon on 5 June to launch his tour of Wales commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Strike. He will be singing and discussing, with a special guest interviewer, the Strike and its impact on his own life and music.