Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Images
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Disaster
- 2 The Village
- 3 The Coalfield
- 4 The Industry
- 5 The Colliery
- 6 The Aftermath
- 7 Sir Stafford Cripps
- 8 The Working Mine
- 9 The Inquiry
- 10 The Management
- 11 The Firemen
- 12 The Inspectorate
- 13 The Miners
- 14 The Union
- 15 The Reports
- 16 The Last Rites
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Nationalisation
- Appendix B The Davy Lamp
- Appendix C Butties
- Appendix D Owners
- Bibliography
- Index
Appendix A - Nationalisation
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Images
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Disaster
- 2 The Village
- 3 The Coalfield
- 4 The Industry
- 5 The Colliery
- 6 The Aftermath
- 7 Sir Stafford Cripps
- 8 The Working Mine
- 9 The Inquiry
- 10 The Management
- 11 The Firemen
- 12 The Inspectorate
- 13 The Miners
- 14 The Union
- 15 The Reports
- 16 The Last Rites
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Nationalisation
- Appendix B The Davy Lamp
- Appendix C Butties
- Appendix D Owners
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The history of the conflict between the government, the colliery owners and the miners during the decade following the end of the First World War need not be described in detail here, but in view of Sir Stafford Cripps's consistent advocacy of nationalisation as the solution to the mining industry's problems, and the use he made of Gresford in support of the policy, a brief summary of the main stages of the campaign which preceded his appearance on the scene may put his own attitude and endeavours into perspective.
Closely bound up with the issue of nationalisation of the mining industry, by which coal was extracted from the ground and sold, was the issue of royalties, the payment made to owners of land, not necessarily mine owners themselves, from beneath which the coal was extracted. State ownership of royalties was broadly favoured by owners and wholly so by miners, the chief difficulty being how to unravel the extremely complex legal and other problems in which the subject was enmeshed.
Consideration of the factors generally accepted as contributing to the unsatisfactory state of the industry was for the most part pushed to one side during the war when the mines, because of their vital contribution to the prosecution of the conflict, were brought under government control. It was the suggestion, following the end of hostilities, that control was to be handed back to the owners which brought nationalisation to the fore as one of a package of reforms demanded by the miners which also included a substantial increase in wages, to meet a steady rise in the cost of living, and a reduction in the eight-hour day to six hours. Faced with the prospect of a crippling strike, which would have involved the railwaymen and the transport workers, the government offered to set up a Commission under Mr Justice Sankey, a High Court judge.
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- Information
- GresfordThe Anatomy of a Disaster, pp. 213 - 217Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1999