People’s History Museum explores the Miners’ Strikes on its 40th anniversary

People’s History Museum is holding a special archive event, gallery tour and creative workshop exploring the 1984 to 1985 Miner’s Strike and surrounding events, 40 years on.

Miners’ Strike 40^th anniversary archive exploration & guided tour at People’s History Museum

Visitors will be able to see papers from the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign, the papers of MPs including Michael Foot and Judith Hart, material from Women Against Pit Closures and photographs of demonstrations and picketing selected from the Labour Party photographic collection.

All of these have been selected by the Archive Team, who will be on hand to talk to.

Gallery tour with Dr Bob Dinn

Also included in the ticket is a gallery tour with Dr Bob Dinn from PHM’s Visitor Experience Team, who will talk about some of the key strikes that have taken place in British history, paying particular attention to the Miners’ Strike and picking out objects that help to tell the story.

How to book tickets to the Miners’ Strikes archive exploration & gallery tour

Visitors can book a morning or afternoon session, with each combining both the tour and archive visit.

Tickets are bookable in advance and start at £10 (plus booking fee), with more information available here.

Morning session

10.15am to 11.00am: guided tour

11.00am to 12.45pm: archive visit

Afternoon session

1.15pm to 3.00pm: archive visit

3.00pm to 3.45pm: guided tour

The Fabric of Protest workshop

Also taking place on Saturday 23 March is PHM’s Fabric of Protest workshop, which will be dedicated to stitching and creating as a way of exploring the solidarity demonstrated during the 1984 to 1985 Miners’ Strikes,  including by Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM).

Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners’ Strikes

Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners was an ostensibly unlikely alliance formed four months into the strike which is depicted in the film Pride (2014).

Amongst LGSM’s fundraising endeavours was the infamous Pits and Perverts benefit, held at London’s Electric Ballroom on 10 December 1984 and featuring Bronski Beat as the headline act.

The LSGM archive was donated to People’s History Museum in 1991.

Artist Helen Mather workshop

Join artist Helen Mather from 1.00pm to 3.00pm to develop your response, with pieces from PHM’s collection as your inspiration.

Fabric of Protest is a creative workshop that is all about stitching, chatting and sharing ideas.

Full-priced places are £15 (plus booking fee), with a limited number of free places available, and concession places priced at £10 (plus booking fee).

All the booking information is here.

For those that cannot visit PHM on 23rd March there are lots of other ways to explore the Miners’ Strike at the museum.

In the main galleries, you will see objects such as a poster featuring the iconic image taken by photographer John Harris during what would become known as the Battle of Orgreave (18 June 1984) and banners that connect to mining communities included in the 2024 Banner Exhibition.

People’s History Museum opening hours

The Miners’ Strike events are on Saturday March 23rd.

People’s History Museum’s opening hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm, every day except Tuesdays.

Museum entry is free, with most visitors donating £10.

To find out about visiting PHM, its full exhibitions and events programme you can check out their website by clicking here

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