Were you among the women who backed miners?

FEELINGS were running high when Margaret Thatcher came to Porthcawl during the miners’ strike, in June 1984.

Among the protesters were a group with a banner which read Rhymney Valley Women Support group – but where are they now?

We’d like you to let us know if you recognise any of them, whether it’s you, or maybe your sister, mother or grandmother.

The late prime minister had come to the Welsh seaside town for the Conservative Party conference, which went down in history when Margaret Thatcher was pelted by eggs, thought to have been thown by protesting dairy farmers.

It was 15 weeks into what turned into the year-long strike called to oppose mass pit closures which would eventually lead to the end of deep mining in Wales.

Women had begun protesting alongside their husbands, fathers and brothers to try to keep 28 Welsh pits open.

They organised food parcels, soup kitchens and fundraisers, marched in rallies and joined pickets.

Many women became politicised by the bitter clashes between the working classes and the Tory government of Margaret Thatcher, who branded the miners and their supporters “the enemy within”.

In the pictures of the Rhymney Valley women in Porthcawl, younger protesters have joined older campaigners, and there are smiles and grimaces, captured by the Echo’s Richard Williams, who was then a young freelance photographer.

“I remember the women’s mood was good-humoured as they supported the miners,” he says.

“I’d come outside the Grand Pavilion, where Margaret Thatcher had been making her speech, and saw crowds with banners and placards.

“It was heavily-policed with lots of barriers to keep the crowds across the other side of the road on the seafront.”

Do you recognise any of the people in the pictures?

Let us know by email: amanda.powell@walesonline.co.uk or message us @RhymneyValleyExpress on Facebook.