Date: 2014—2015

“We got presents that were donated…. 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.

A share of a pensioner’s Christmas ‘Bonus’ by artist and filmmaker Esther Johnson, and filmmaker and writer Debbie Ballin, bears witness to the untold stories of children of the strike. The research includes a bosy of work presented together in exhibition form: a poetic-audio documentary, photography and artefacts from the strike.

This enquiry is part of a wider research project titled 'Echoes of Protest', investigating the legacy of being involved in significant protest movements from a child’s perspective. The project aims to understand the role protest can play in the lives of children, and to explore its aftermath.

Visit Esther Johnson's website HERE.

Visit the research website HERE.

Read 'Echoes of Protest: untold stories of the 1984–1985 UK Miners’ Strike' by Esther Johnson and Debbie Ballin HERE, published in Oral History Spring 2017, Volume 45, ISSN 0143 0955.

Read the book chapter 'Voices from the Strike' by Esther Johnson and Debbie Ballin HERE, published in 'Justice Denied: Friends, Foes and the Miners’ Strike' ISBN 978-0-85036-730-0.

Read 'The People's Echo' by Esther Johnson and Debbie Ballin HERE, a free research newpaper for exhibition visitors