Coal Mining Prints - The 'Liddle' House On The Prairie

38 x 28cm signed print

"The Coal Strike of 1984/85 saw miners pickets barring the gates of many Northern Eastern pits.  Westoe Colliery was no exception as miners doggedly tried to save their pit, community and way of life. 

To prevent strike breakers 'scabs' going into work, the pickets formed a 24 hour guard at the pit gates.  Scores of police arrived with the task of keeping the gates open, allowing buses carrying the strike breakers to pass.  To maintain order a police inspector by the name of Liddle arrived on the scene at Leighton Street who was to turn the situation from a reasonably friendly atmosphere between the police and the striking pitmen to almost anarchy.  There was a TV programme showing at the time called The Little House On The Prairie.  The picketing miners christened their makeshift cabin The Liddle House On The Prairie.  He ordered it to be demolished on the grounds that it was obstructing vehicles going in and out of the pit yard which inflamed the situation further.  He was eventually replaced by a more reasonable officer and although the situation was still fractious, relations between the miners and police improved." - Bob Olley