The politics of food: Gender, family, community and collective feeding in South Wales in the general strike and miners' lockout of 1926

Twentieth Century British History

Volumn 18, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 54-77

  Bruley, Sue ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 38949196388     PISSN: 09552359     EISSN: 14774674     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/tcbh/hwl045     Document Type: Article

References (157)

1. See for example James Klugmann, 'Marxism, Reformism and the General Strike', in Jeffrey Skelley (ed.), The General Strike (London, 1976)
2. Duncan Hallas and Chris Harman, Days of Hope, The General Strike of 1926 (London, 1981)
3. Robin Page Arnot, The General Strike, May 1926, Its Origin and History (Wakefield, 1975).
4. Some of the major texts: Jeffrey Skelley (ed.) The General Strike 1926 (London, 1976)
5. Patrick Renshaw The General Strike (London, 1975)
6. G.A. Phillips, The General Strike, The Politics of Industrial Conflict (London, 1976)
7. Margaret Morris, (ed.) The General Strike (Harmondsworth, 1976)
8. Christopher Farman, The General Strike May 1926 (London, 1972).
9. Sarah Boston, Women Workers and the Trade Unions (London, 1980), 174-6
10. Shiela Lewenhak, Women and Trade Unions, An Outline History of Women in the British Trade Union Movement (London, 1977), 192-3.
11. Ian Haywood, ''Never Again?' Ellen Wilkinson's Clash and the Feminization of the General Strike', Literature and History, 8 (1999) 34-43
12. Maroula Joannou, 'Reclaiming the Romance: Ellen Wilkinson's Clash and the Cultural Legacy of Socialist-Feminism, in Heart of the Heartless World, Essays in Cultural Resistance in Memory of Margot Heinemann (London, 1995).
13. Ellen Wilkinson, Clash (first published London 1929, reissued London 1989).
14. John McIlroy, Alan Cambell, Keith Gildart, Industrial Politics and the Mining Lockout, the Struggle for Dignity (Cardiff, 2004) is also useful.
15. James Stevens' unpublished thesis deals with the Lockout, but from the perspective of the Poor Law and the Co-operative societies; 'The Coalmining Lock-out of 1926 with particular reference to the Co-operative Movement and the Poor Law', PhD Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1984.
16. Chris Williams, Capitalism, Community and Conflict, The South Wales Coalfield 1898-1947 (Cardiff, 1998), 8.
17. Paul O'Leary, 'Masculine Histories: Gender and the Social History of Modern Wales', Welsh History Review, 22 (2004), 256-7.
18. Ibid., 261.
19. This research is part of a wider study for a book for the University of Wales Press, provisionally titled, The General Strike and Miners' Lockout in South Wales, Gender, Home and Community in the Miners' Lockout of 1926.
20. Chris Williams gives 1920 as the peak for employment in the South Wales coal industry at 271,516, in Capitalism, Community, 21.
21. Hywel Francis and David Smith, The Fed: A History of the South Wales Miners in the Twentieth Century (London, 1980)
22. Williams, Capitalism, Community;
23. David Gilbert, Class, Community and Collective Action, Social Change in Two British Coalfields 1850-1926, (Oxford, 1992)
24. Michael Lieven, Senghenydd: The Universal Pit Village, 1890-1930 (Llandysul, 1994).
25. Gilbert, Class, Community, 54-66.
26. Ibid., 130.
27. Also see Stuart MacIntyre, Little Moscows, Communism and Working Class Militancy in Inter War Britain (London, 1980), 176-7.
28. For details see Geraint H. Jenkins, 'Wales, the Welsh and the Welsh Language', in Geraint H. Jenkins, The Welsh Language and its Social Domains 1801-1911 (Cardiff, 2000), 1-4.
29. Chris Williams, Democratic Rhondda, Politics and Society 1885-1951 (Cardiff, 1996), 22.
30. Ibid., 24
31. Wyn Price, 'Aspects of Urban History of the Garw Valley c1870-1914', PhD Thesis, University of Wales, Cardiff, 2001, 377.
32. Francis and Smith, The Fed, 34.
33. Ibid.,
34. For example see 16, 54-5,59.
35. Also Hywel Francis, 'South Wales', in J. Skelley (ed.) The General Strike (1976), 249.
36. Williams, Capitalism, Community, 5.
37. N. Dennis, F. Henriques and C. Slaughters, Coal is our Life, An Analysis of a Yorkshire Mining Community (London, 1956), is the classic study of mining communities.
38. See also: Williams, Capitalism, Community, 63-9
39. Rosemary Crook, 'Tidy women': Women in the Rhondda between the wars', Oral History Journal, 10 (1982), 42-3.
40. Ferdynand Zweig, Men in Pits (London, 1948), 13.
41. B.L. Coombes, These Poor Hands, The Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales (London, 1939), provides wonderful detail on the working life of a miner in South Wales in this period.
42. See, for example: Angela V. John (ed.) Our Mothers' Land: Chapters in Welsh Women's History 1830-1939 (Cardiff, 1991)
43. Deirdre Beddoe, Out of the Shadows: A History of Women in Twentieth Century Wales (Cardiff, 2000)
44. Carol White, Sian Rhiannon Williams (eds), Struggle or Starve, Women's Lives in the South Wales Valleys Between the Two World Wars (Dinas Powys, 1998).
45. For details see Dot Jones and Neil Evans, 'A blessing for the miners' wife': The campaign for pithead baths', Llafur, 6 (1994).
46. In her autobiography Elizabeth Andrews refers to the early successes in the campaign, for example in Treharris in 1919, A Woman's Work is Never Done (Ystrad Rhondda, 1957).
47. Walter Hadyn Davies, The Right Place, The Right Time (Memories of boyhood in a Welsh mining Community) (Llandybie, 1972), 67.
48. For details see Crook, 'Tidy Women'.
49. For details see Dot Jones, 'Counting the Cost of Coal: Women's Lives in the Rhondda, 1881-1911', in John, Our Mothers' Land, particularly 126.
50. Griselda Carr, Pit Women: Coal Communities in Northern England in the Early Twentieth Century (London, 2001), 26.
51. Rosemary Jones, 'Women, Community and Collective Action: The 'Ceffyl Pren' Tradition', in John (ed.), Our Mother's Land, 34-7.
52. For details see entries for Rose Davies and Elizabeth Andrews in K. Gildart, D. Howell and N. Kirk, Dictionary of Labour Biography, Vol. XI (Basingstoke, 2003).
53. Ursula Masson states that there were NUWSS branches in Merthyr, Pontypridd and Rhondda, and a branch of the Women's Freedom League in Aberdare. Dictionary of Labour Biography, (2003), 40.
54. Kay Cook and Neil Evans have written that branches of the NUWSS were established in Bargoed, Pontypool, Rhondda Fach, Upper Rhondda and Ton Pentre. 'The Petty Antics of the Bell-Ringing Boisterous Band'? The Women's Suffrage Movement. in Wales, 1890-1918',
55. John, Our Mothers' Land, 171-2.
56. Andrews, A Woman's Work is Never Done, 6.
57. Minutes of the East Glamorgan Labour Women's Advisory Council, 19 September, 1925, record a membership figure of 1138 in East Glamorgan Labour Party Women's Sections. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. See also, Neil Evans and Dot Jones, 'To Help Forward the Great Work of Humanity': Women in the Labour Party in Wales', in D. Tanner, C. Williams and D. Hopkin, The Labour Party in Wales 1900-2000, (Cardiff, 2000).
58. This growth in South Wales was very much part of a national picture. By 1925 there were 1,450 Labour Party Women's Sections in Britain representing 200,000 women. Labour Woman, June 1925.
59. See Sue Bruley, Leninism, Stalinism and the Women's Movement in Britain 1920-1939, (New York, 1986), 162.
60. Patricia Ryan, 'The Poor Law in 1926.', in Morris (ed.), The General Strike, 359.
61. MH 57/94, Public Record Office (henceforth PRO).
62. MH 57/94, PRO.
63. MH 79/297, PRO.
64. MH 79/297, PRO.
65. MH 79/297, PRO.
66. Circular 703, Ministry of Health, 5.5.1926. Located as Appendix A, Relief Advisory Committee of the Pontypridd Union, 21st May, 1926. Glamorgan Record Office (henceforth GRO). See also Paul Jeremy, 'Life on Circular 703: The Crisis of Destitution in the South Wales Coalfield during the Lockout of 1926.' Llafur (1977), 68.
67. MH 79/297. PRO.
68. Francis and Smith, The Fed, 57.
69. According to Stewart Williams, the SWMF contributed £330,000 to the maintenance of the miners during the dispute. Considering the large number of miners and their families in 1926 and the length of the Lockout this sum would not have gone far. South Glamorgan, A County History (Barry, 1975), 556.
70. Miners Federation of Great Britain, General Statement of Receipts and Payments for the 14 months ending June 30th, 1927, appendix to Annual Report.
71. Marion Phillips, Women and the Miners' Lockout, The Story of the Women's Committee for the Relief of the Miners' Wives and Children (London 1927).
72. Jeremy 'Life on Circular 703', 70.
73. South Wales Echo, 25 May 1926.
74. Michael Foot, Aneurin Bevan 1897-1945 (London, 1975, 1962), 73.
75. Merthyr Express, 19 June 1926.
76. Colliery Guardian, 28 May 1926.
77. South Wales Echo, 11 June 1926.
78. Aberdare Leader, 1 July 1926.
79. Rhondda Gazette, 12 June 1926.
80. Merthyr Express, 21 August 1926.
81. Foot, Aneurin Bevan, 74.
82. Maesteg Minutes of Distress Fund, South Wales Coal Collection, University of Wales Swansea (henceforth SWCC).
83. Glamorgan Gazette (Bridgend edition). 23 July 1926.
84. Maerdy Distress Committee Minutes, SWCC. 17 May 1926.
85. Lizzie Davies, Interview, 25 August 2004, Maerdy.
86. Maerdy Distress Committee Minutes are extremely detailed and include information on menus and food ordered throughout the period of the Lockout.
87. Tylorstown Relief Committee Order Book July-October 1926, SWCC.
88. Aberdare Leader, 31 July 1926 and 21 August 1926.
89. Mavis Llewellyn, Interview, 23 July 1977, Nantymoel.
90. Bedlinog Council of Action, Minutes, 12 May 1926. SWCC.
91. Maerdy Distress Committee Minutes, 22 June 1926. SWCC.
92. Glamorgan Gazette, 10 September 1926.
93. Will Paynter, My Generation (London, 1972), 34.
94. Glamorgan Gazette, 21 May 1926.
95. Francis and Smith, The Fed, 63.
96. Various contributors, '1926 Remembered and Revealed.' Llafur, (1977), 20.
97. Interview, Lizzie Davies, 25 August 2004.
98. Maerdy Distress Committee, Sub Committee 24 May. SWCC.
99. Interview, Mavis Lewellyn, 23 July 1977.
100. Interview with Lil Price, 21 July 1977, Cardiff.
101. R.G. Keen, Old Maesteg and the Bridgend Valleys in Photographs, (Barry 1979), 97.
102. Mark Davies (ed.), The Valleys Autobiography, A People's History of the Garw, Llynfi and Ogmore Valleys (Mid Glamorgan, 1992), 38. The caption wrongly lists this picture as being from the Blaengarw Workman's Hall.
103. Ethel Roberts, Interview, 24 November 2004, Pontneddfechan.
104. Susan E. Demont, 'Tredegar and Aneurin Bevan: A Society and Its Political Articulation 1890-1929'. PhD Thesis, University of Wales, 1990, 278.
105. North's Workmen's Institute, Minutes, 24 September 1926. SWCC. In general the miners' libraries stocked the mainstream and left wing press.
106. Maerdy Distress Committee Minutes, 21 September 1926, 6 December 1926.
107. Maerdy Distress Committee, 23 November 1926.
108. See, for example, Rhondda Urban District Council, Central Canteen Committee Minutes, 11 May 1926, 75, GRO.
109. Colliery Guardian, 16 July 1926.
110. Merthyr Express, 22 May 1926. On May 29th the number being fed was reported as 'nearly 7000'.
111. Aberdare Leader, 4 September 1926.
112. Rhondda Gazette, 11 September 1926.
113. Colliery Workers Magazine July 1926, 149. This is report - of a conference of Labour councillors in Cardiff. The meeting was strongly against deductions from poor relief for school meals.
114. Steven Thompson, "That beautiful summer of severe austerity" Health, Diet and the Working Class Domestic Economy in South Wales in 1926', Welsh History Review 21 (2003), 565-6.
115. Aberdare Leader, 11 September 1926. As Thompson notes, in the Rhondda, there were only a few occasions when the percentage of children being school fed was more than half those on the school register, Thompson, 'That beautiful summer', 565, 45.
116. Taken from Rhondda Urban District Council, Annual Report of the School Medical Officer, 1926.
117. This report is in Treorchy Library.
118. Thompson, 'That beautiful summer,' 568.
119. Interview, Martha Jones, 27 October 2004, Trealaw.
120. Interview, Gladys Davies, 4 August 2004, Bridgend.
121. South Wales News, 22 September 1926.
122. Aberdare Leader, 11 September 1926.
123. The Miner, 11 June 1926.
124. Pontypridd Observer, 5 July 1926.
125. Pontypridd Observer, 24 July 1926.
126. See for example Pontypridd Observer, 26 June 1926.
127. South Wales Echo, 12 August 1926.
128. Maerdy Distress Committee Minutes, 6 September 1926. SWCC.
129. South Wales Miners Library, Interview, Merfyn Payne, 18 June. 1975.
130. Interview 'Jean' (wishes to remain anonymous), 6 August 2004, Pontycymer.
131. Interview Lilian Lawrence, 27 October 2004. Trealaw.
132. E. Greening, '1926 in Aberdare.' Llafur, (1977), 35.
133. Interview, Gwyneth Evans, 25 November 2004, Pontycymer.
134. The acting master of Merthyr Tydfil Poor Law Union noted that 'several single men had been admitted into the house owing to the coal crisis.' Minute Book, 26 May 1926. GRO.
135. Williams, Democratic Rhondda, 26.
136. Francis, 'South Wales', 233.
137. Merthyr Express, 23 October 1926.
138. Merthyr Express, 23 October 1926.
139. See, for example Colliery Guardian, 29 October 1926, which gives a round up of the week's disturbances.
140. Paynter, My Generation, 35.
141. Francis and Smith, The Fed, 57.
142. Interview, Will Arthur, 21 May 1973. SWML.
143. Francis and Smith, The Fed, 57. Taken from an interview 16 February 1970, South Wales Miners' Library.
144. Francis and Smith, The Fed, 57, reference 35. This is taken from the Lady Windsor Colliery Lodge minutes, July-December 1926. SWCC.
145. John E. Morgan, A Village Workers' Council, A Short History of the Lady Windsor Lodge, (Pontypridd, 1956), 27.
146. Morgan Village Workers Council 29.
147. See also Gilbert, Class, Community, 138.
148. Gilbert, Class, Community, 137.
149. Morgan, A Village Workers' Council, 29.
150. Edith Davies, The Innocent Years, The Story of my Childhood in Ynysybwl (Creigau, 1995), 90, gives a date of 1920 for the introduction of a bus route reaching Ynysybwl.
151. Glamorgan Gazette, 18 June 1926.
152. Morgan, Village Workers' Council, 27.
153. CAB 27 333/334, PRO.
154. For women in the 1984 dispute in South Wales see Jill Miller, You Can't Kill the Spirit, Women in a Welsh Mining Valley (London, 1986)
155. Welsh Campaign for Civil & Political Liberties and National Union of Miners (South Wales Area), Striking Back (Cardiff, 1985).
156. Also useful are Vicky Seddon (ed.) The Cutting Edge: Women and the Pit Strike (London, 1986)
157. Jean Stead, Never the Same Again (London, 1987).