Miners strike: South Wales communities lost by strike

Four decades later, on the 40th anniversary of the national strike, some former miners from South Wales reflected on the after effects on their communities. 

Although some memories of the strike might differ in their feelings towards them, the overall impact is something that the miners we spoke to seem to share. 

Ron Stoate, a former miner at Penalta Colliery and now chair of trustees at the Cefn Fforest Miners' Institute, remains angry over the effect the strike had on his community. 

Ron Stoate is still bitter over how his thriving community has been destroyed by the impact of the strikes ending 40 years ago (Image: Clint Evans)

He said: "I'm still bitter all these years later over how we were treated and what it did to our industry and the community we had. 

"People were forced out of their jobs in a very brutal way, and people were forced to travel to the big cities over the bridge - London, Bristol - which took up a lot of time and energy. 

"It was either that or you didn't have a job. I think that fight against the working class is still going on in our area today. 

"It seems people don't care about us as a working class area, and the government in London is to blame for that. Things have never been the same - and I will never forgive the Tory government or the police for what they did to what was a thriving community." 

Despite his bitterness over what has been left as Cefn Fforest's community in the years gone by, Mr Stoate did mention that the strength of the community really struck him at the time. 

He added: "We all bonded together and that's really stuck with me. That's why I'm so angry with how people were forced to move away for work or not work and have no money, which ruined our community."

Another miner from South Wales shared a similar view of the strike's impact. The ex-miner, who wished to remain anonymous, believed the local communities across Wales had been "destroyed" by the strike and "have been forgotten" in the years since. 

He continued: "It's never been the same. Our communities used to be a hubbub of activity when the mines were open, but since the strike, people were forced out and we've lost what made the small communities around here so great."

For Big Pit curator and ex-miner Ceri Thomas, the strike brought "doom and gloom" to his local community of Church Village. 

Ceri Thompson (left) says the strike brought doom and gloom to his community, and the thriving social element died off as a result (Image: Ceri Thompson)

He said: "Although the strike itself was a bit confusing, it had such a terrible impact on my community. 

"Within a year of going back to work, we were all made redundant, and then the community just started dying. 

"People moved away for work and by the time they'd travelled home, they were too tired to come out to the pub. I went from seeing 20-odd guys I knew in the pub on a Friday night to now being lucky if I see two guys watching the sport or something.

"When I go out on walks now, I remember the time when I would bump into some fellow miners with almost every step, now it's normal if I see one person - the whole community has just gone."

Mr Thomas believes his village has "died" in the years since, as they no longer have a thriving chip shop or newsagents, both of which shut within months of the strike ending. 

He added: "The whole place just looks so sad - there's very few people around. There doesn't really seem to be any point in old mining villages anymore, we've just lost the heart of the community, which is such a shame. 

"There is no community - it all went with the miners and never came back."