‘Everyone knew everyone – it was a proper community’
OWEN YOUNGER visits Easington, one of the North East pit villages caught up in the bitter miners’ strike 40 years ago
WITH this year being the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike, I decided to visit a former pit village in the region – and there is a lot to choose from.
In the end, I decided to go to Easington, given the fact that Easington Colliery was the largest employer in the area and its closure had a huge impact on everyone who lived in the village at the time.
On my way to Easington, I was wondering whether I would struggle to find people connected to the miners’ strike, with it now being four decades since it took place.
However, these worries were put to bed as I immediately began chatting with 93-year-old resident Brian Tully as soon as I entered the village.
Brian said: “Easington used to be a true pit village, where everyone knew everyone and it was a proper community. I went away with the Navy to see the world and came back to the village, which has changed as a lot of people have moved out for work. The miners’ strikes impacted the whole community, but everyone at the time stuck together and as an area I think we were really resilient. You still get the odd exhibition on the history of the miners or the union show their faces but its rare that this happens, so there isn’t the same connection there.”
Next, I spoke to Darren Sadler, who moved to Easington around eight years ago, and spoke to me about what the area has been like more recently. Darren works in the Mini Mart and the Premier in the village, and he said: “You always see the same faces here and we have a diverse customer base, with many of the older residents chatting about what it was like during the colliery days.
“This was clearly a very close community and it is understandable that people miss those days, especially those who are older. It gives me a nice feeling knowing that I am giving people that human interaction which they might not get an awful lot of otherwise.” After speaking to Darren, I moved on up the street where I spoke to a lifelong resident of Easington, who was in her late teens when the strikes took place, Julie Killen. Julie used to have to walk through the picket line to get the bus to her job at the Walkers factory in Peterlee.
Julie said: “It was terrifying as a young girl walking through the village at that time, there was a highly charged atmosphere and it was incredibly tense. I never felt in
danger but it was just a very scary situation to be in, especially being young and not having any choice but to walk through it.”
Moving on from Julie, I headed to the Pay Note Cafe, which is a food and drink establishment based in the Old Pay Office, the last remaining building from the Easington pit.
It is also the headquarters of Easington Colliery Brass Band, which business owner Peter Lawson is the chairman of.
Peter spoke to me about his time as a miner and the importance of remembering Easington’s history, saying: “When the strikes happened, we had just purchased our first house so it couldn’t have come at a worse time. When the pit closed in 1993, this building was due for demolition but myself and the rest of the band managed to get a grant to allow us to use it as a practice space.
“After this, I wanted to create somewhere that could be a new community hub, like the pit itself was when it was here. For me, it is so important to remember and celebrate Easington’s industrial history, and having the Pay Note Cafe along with the band has helped me to do that.”
Finally, I had a chat with Trevor Jones, another former miner, who actually trained alongside Peter, as he was having a coffee and cake in the cafe with his wife Susan. Trevor added: “They say once a miner, always a miner, and that is definitely true with myself and Peter, he does so much for the community here. “When the strikes happened I wasn’t out picketing much, as I was focusing on keeping the family warm and fed at a really hard time. We had just had two young girls, and I lost the social aspect in terms of the football games and camaraderie that we had as a group.
“They were good times and I have fond memories from when we worked in the collieries. We were just a group of lads that got on with our jobs and that helped us get through working in some awful conditions.”
As I was leaving Easington, I pondered what everyone had said about the way that the mining heritage of the village has impacted its residents. It is great to see that there are still so many people who want to celebrate its industrial heritage, with Peter’s Pay Note Cafe acting as the perfect way of doing just that.