A share of a pensioner’s Christmas ‘Bonus’ [audio documentary]

I got a little cheap plastic watch and a coat that my auntie had made, but I just didn’t even care ’cos I was having so much fun.” – Sam, Miner’s Daughter aged 15 during the strike It’s Christmas 1984. Sam, Gayle, Jayne and Craig are the children of striking miners. During the Miners’ Strike, the Thatcher government paid pensioners the same £10 Christmas heating bonus they had received since 1972. A nationwide appeal, in several national newspapers, invited pensioners to give up their bonus in support of the striking miners. Hundreds of pounds worth of bonuses were donated to support this cause. This is the story of how acts of generosity by total strangers made Christmas possible for striking families that year, and what it was like for children such as Sam, Gayle, Jayne and Craig, to grow up in the shadow of the Miners’ Strike.