Mexborough & Swinton Times, March 4, 1911
Denaby & Cadeby Collieries Review
5. Strikes and Conflicts
The Great Strike
As I already hinted, there have been stormy periods in the history of the concern, as the following
Brief diary of industrial disputes will show:
Coal reached, September 1868
End of strike September 1869
Commencement of strike, March 1877
Strike October 1879
End of strike, January 12, 1880
Notice given to miners, December 1880.
Settlement of dispute, January 29, 1881
700 miners evicted, April 1885
Rioting July 1885
Rioters sentenced August 1885,
Settlement of disputes, August 1885.
Strike of fitters, August 1886
Work resumed, February 9, 1888
Boy strike, June 1889
General strike, August 1894
General strike ended, November 17, 1894
Dispute settled, May 22, 1903
The greatest strike was the last one, that of 1902. That history was conducted with the bitterness which set the whole country agog for its morning newspapers. 5000 men were thrown out of employment through a grievance, which affected 30 of them. The company was obdurate on the question – that of getting bag dirt – and the Yorkshire Miners Association took up the gauge of battle with great spirit. The Doncaster police court was choked with charges against the men by the company of intimidation and illegal leaving.
Eventually there was a climax in the shape of the eviction by the company of the tenants of their houses, such of them as were strikers. These men were turned out of their houses to make room for the people whowere come from other districts to take their places.
Indignation meetings were held all over the place, and while threats of violence were used, no opposition was offered to the little army of police quartered in the village and on the colliery premises, and no serious damage was done anywhere, though the district felt a great depression in trade as a result.
The strike fizzled out tamely as more and more `black sheep´came to the colliery.