Aspects of the political and social history of Ashington, a Northumberland coal mining community, 1870-1914

• Main Author: Hall, Valerie Gordon
• Published: London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) 1993
• Subjects: 942.886
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.530758

This thesis examines the political and social history of Ashington, a coal mining community in Northumberland, in the years 1870 to 1914. This community was the first in the county to move from the Liberal Party to the Labour Party in the early twentieth century and to reject the conciliatory policies of the late Victorian era in favour of a position of assertiveness and national solidarity in industrial relations. It was also central to persuading the accommodationist county union to adopt a similar stance. This study explores the process by which Ashington made such changes and took the lead in the county. It also analyses the actual outlook which emerged amongst the miners. In addition, this study also links the timing of the change in Ashington and the role which this community took in the county to significant developments which occurred at the local level in the early twentieth century: in the organisation of work; in the nature of community life; in the structure and character of the population and in the respective roles of the company and workers in the social realm. It is clear that these changes, along with broader developments in the nation as a whole, created a milieu which was favourable to the adoption of new policies. Though the study of only one community, this analysis illuminates the behaviour of other workers. It reveals the number of factors which can influence their outlook and it shows the complex interaction between events at the local and the national level. It also sheds light on the confusing picture of political change in the years before the First World War and upon an industrial group which played a very important part in workers' politics. In addition, it reveals the close links between change in the work sphere, in the social arena, both at the national and the local level, and in the outlook of workers.