Voices from the strike

This book chapter draws upon original audio–visual research undertaken by Esther Johnson and Deborah Ballin as part of a project titled Echoes of Protest. This research investigates the legacy of being involved in significant protest movements from a child’s perspective and aims to understand the role protest can play in the lives of children, and to explore its aftermath. The project included the collection of oral history testimonies and photography from those involved in the 1984–85 Miners’ Strike. The chapter highlights a perspective of the strike that has seldom been explored with stories collected from adults remembering what it was like to grow up as a child during the strike. Contributors articulate their experience with a maturity they may have been unable to express as a child. The text follows our methodology and findings, and discusses our editing process. The audio–visual research was presented in an exhibition titled A share of a pensioner’s Christmas ‘Bonus’ presented at The People’s History Museum, Manchester, from December 2015–January 2016; and the National Coalmining Museum, Wakefield, November 2016–January 2017. Both exhibitions included a curated selection of artefacts from the Hilary Wainwright collection held at PHM.