Adrian Johnson makes a personal response to a box of beautiful symbols of protest and revolt across the West Midlands of England between 1984-85 A few years ago my friend, Lianne, rescued a small, under considered box of badges while working at a charity shop in the west midlands of England and put a call out on social media for anyone that might be interested in them. I said I’d love to take a look and of course it got me thinking. How badges are often circular and smooth, how stories are often circular and tell us certain truths, sometimes more about the author than the drama itself. So, the first thought that struck me is who collected them? Also, why were they given up and sent off to the charity shop? Well, I guess the original male or female collector must be making an even closer, breathless, personal connection with the colourful and bold imagery that features on most of the one inch in diameter, gold enamelled, badges which commemorate the old black gold, King Coal and the miner’s strike of 1984.
Beauty and economy of scale As I rummaged through the plastic box of industrial treasures I am most struck by the beauty and economy of scale achieved in the images contained in the badge designs which were produced by the miners and their families that cherished and cared for their jobs at all the different pits around the country, and the West Midlands in particular. All seriously threatened with closure by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party in their second term of Government. Now for me, whenever I think of coal mining, I don’t just think of the two major coal miner strikes. I also recall George Orwell’s incredibly gritty journey down a mine shaft in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) where he remarked: “Our civilization … is founded on coal, more completely than one realizes until one stops to think about it. The machines that keep us alive, and the machines that make machines, are all directly or indirectly dependent upon coal. In the metabolism of the Western world the coal-miner is second in importance only to the man who ploughs the soil. He is a sort of caryatid upon whose shoulders nearly everything that is not grimy is supported. For this reason the actual process by which coal is extracted is well worth watching, if you get the chance and are willing to take the trouble. And now a similar reason spurs me on to consider the badges which were commissioned and sold for a few pounds to raise funds for their strike action to try and save their jobs, living standards and communities, almost forty years ago. Littleton Colliery in Cannock Chase, West Midlands A lot of the badge collection features the Littleton Miners contribution to the 1984-5 strike. And here a bit of research informs the interested reader that this mine was first established in 1877 by the Cannock and Huntingdon Colliery Company. The pit went on to become one of the largest in the West Midlands and the last colliery that remained on Cannock Chase. It was also modernised by the National Coal Board and in 1982 employed 1,900 miners, mining nearly a million tonnes of coal. At the end of 1992, Littleton Colliery was designated as a “core” pit by the Conservative government of the time, briefly sparing the site from the fate of hundreds of other mines which were shut down between 1984 and 1994. Now the area hosts a new school on the former colliery site and a nearby Amazon warehouse. So perhaps the original keeper and collector of these badges came from Littleton? They may have been a miner or a miner’s wife. Perhaps they were collected by a member of a miner’s support group which sprang up in response to the privations and political push to crush the coal industry and finish their union. It’s hard to tell. Lianne feels they might have been collected by a woman and certainly there are some hints and clues for this. Some of the badges feature women’s support groups from Derby and Walsall for example. Also, the box of beautiful enamel badges does also feature and contain a silver, lucky charm sized Davy lamp on a necklace. So, perhaps…? However, there are a few lapel badges more suited to a man’s jacket lapels, so maybe…? Matthew Boulton’s coins, commemorative medals and badges Anyway, did I mention stories, like badges, are sometimes circular? Or at least they curve to meet their writer and reader? Well my other writing and storytelling enthusiasm is for the three great ‘golden boys’, the West Midlands industrialists Boulton, Watt and Murdoch – especially William Murdoch. But that is another story. For this story of a simple Tupperware box of badges Mathew Boulton is especially significant as his very successful copper mint, established over two hundred years ago made coins and commemorative medals which secured Sandwell and Birmingham’s historic connection with the renowned steam powered presses and power pumps that to this very day continue to power and influence badge, coin and medal manufacturing. Production of these same items continues around the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham. Badge makers like Fattorini of Regent Street, Badges Plus of Summer Lane and W. Reeves & Company of Tenby Street. All these company names appear on the reverse side of several of Lianne’s wonderful box of enamel badges which colourfully recall those who supported the coal mining communities that were threatened and ultimately closed within a period of just ten years. So, although current government policies relentlessly and mistakenly promote STEM (science, technology, Engineering and Maths) in schools Lianne’s box of badges beautifully demonstrate and combine all the elements of science, technology, engineering, ARTS and maths - STEAM. Imagination, design and manufacturing all combined to create these beautiful enamel badges which obviously involved passion for design, artistry and an acute awareness of traditional imagery of the kind familiar to those at work in Matthew Boulton’s Soho works all those years ago. Many of the badges feature a pick and shovel, a miners Davy lamp, railways, mining tunnels, colliery wheels and fraternal hands (similar to Matthew Boulton’s first coin designs of 1797) that reach out to the viewer as well as help dig the coal and cradle a child. Of all the collected enamel badges in the box it is perhaps safe to imagine the unknown collector worked or had a strong association with Littleton Colliery in Cannock Chase. There are also badges from Nottingham Area NUM, Goldthorpe NUM, Dearne Valley NUM, Highgate NUM and assorted Women’s support groups. They all have great beauty and dignity – just imagine the discussions the men and women must have had about organising and commissioning the art work and images which would feature on their own badge to sell and help raise funds for the strike committees and food collections for the miners on strike without food or income for a year. Littleton Ladies Against Pit Closures For me the beautiful gold, aquamarine and navy blue enamel badge of the alliterative ‘Littleton Ladies Against Pit Closures’ is especially beautiful. It was made in Birmingham by Badges Plus and features the ubiquitous miners Davy Lamp, pick and shovel but also the less common image of a bird in flight - with a feather in its beak. A moving, golden symbol of flight, freedom and nest building a home for everyone connected with the endangered pit at Littleton. I wonder if an inspired miner’s wife or thoughtful miner added that delicate and endearing image of the bird in flight? We can only imagine, though there will be someone more closely associated with Littleton who will know for sure. NUM Highgate Branch Another gorgeous and evocative enamel badge in the collection comes from the ‘NUM Highgate Branch.’ Red, gold and black feature on this circular gem of simplicity and beautiful pared back artistry. In simple lines there is an upturned U, representing the coal mining tunnel. Sat beneath it, back to back are two figures on a flatbed rail trolley. It’s a sublimely meditative and evocative image. The economy of scale is quite terrific and packs so much into such a small space of well under one inch (2cm) in diameter. Imagine sitting there with your workmate, back to back, quiet and about to be carried into the coal black darkness. The gold lettering also reminds the viewer of the old black gold of King Coal and how little those that dug it were ever really paid for it. Notts Miners Forum The next especially eye catching enamel badge which I want to explore is the oval shaped enamel badge of the ‘Notts Miners Forum’ which combines the imagery of the NUM coat of arms with a light giving Davy Lamp held up high in the evidently strong, muscular, miners forearm complete with their sleeves heartily rolled up to their elbow. It’s simply copper gold with shiny enamel varnish carrying the simple statement “Re-build Unity”. Which, of course anyone that knows about the miner’s strike in Nottingham will fully understand why that short statement carries so very much, in so few words. I myself, at the time, was an undergraduate at Nottingham’s then Trent Polytechnic and well recall the stunning films I saw at the students union meetings in Clifton showing how the TV news reports were cut and re-arranged to discredit the pickets. I also recall trying to travel out to a small Nottinghamshire village with five other students in the Spring of 1984. We had a show about bullying and comic book heroes for primary school children and I was Gripper Grape, all dressed up with plumped up pillows to make a huge,, round green villain. There were other assorted heroes and villains in the van, but non of us got to perform for the schoolchildren of Nottingham that day as we were all suspected of being villainous flying pickets! Oh dear. We got turned back by the police on the motorway and that was that. Veteran, Orgreave Another of the nearly one hundred enamel badges in a box is the gold and black badge which features the resonant 5 words “Veteran Orgreave June 19 1984”. Alongside it is a silhouette of a mounted horse rider swinging a bat. No prizes for guessing who got hit and who did the hitting on that terrible day for miners standing up for their jobs and family livelihoods. 1,700 other badges Elsewhere I hope to show and share other images of the collection. They are redolent and evocative of so much. Courage, bravery, pride and artistry by people just like you and me that continues today, though not quite so obviously or in such a great mass of revolt and resistance across the UK. There are also one or two well researched and better detailed histories of miner’s strike badges, most notably by Brian Witts in his comprehensive review of 1,700 badges in his handsome volume Enamel Badges of the National Union of Miners (2008). I really just want them to go somewhere they can be appreciated As things gradually emerge from the poisonous cloud of Covid-19 a sharing event, discussion and/or reminiscence session or two in and around Bearwood seems very appropriate and likely. Lianne is committed to finding the best place to show and share them safely and that is certainly the very best future for the collection which might eventually find a home with a major national museum or regional gallery. Let us hope so and be glad that, ultimately, as Lianne says “I really just want them to go somewhere they can be appreciated.” As do I hope a suitable place to show and share these glorious emblems of the West Midlands ambition for something better can eventually be secured for everyone to enjoy, wonder about and learn from them. What do you think? Feel free to say and get in touch. And finally, here’s a bit more from George Orwell to finish off with: it keeps us alive, and we are oblivious of its existence. More than anyone else, perhaps, the miner can stand as the type of the manual worker, not only because his work is so exaggeratedly awful, but also because it is so vitally necessary and yet so remote from our experience, so invisible, as it were, that we are capable of forgetting it as we forget the blood in our veins. In a way it is even humiliating to watch coal-miners working. It raises in you a momentary doubt about your own status as an 'intellectual' and a superior person generally. For it is brought home to you, at least while you are watching, that it is only because miners sweat their guts out that superior persons can remain superior. You and I and the editor of the Times Lit. Supp., and the poets and the Archbishop of Canterbury and Comrade X, author of Marxism for Infants--all of us really owe the comparative decency of our lives to poor drudges underground, blackened to the eyes, with their throats full of coal dust, driving their shovels forward with arms and belly muscles of steel. I did say stories and badges have a kind of circularity. Adrian Johnson, MSc. Bearwood, Smethwick August, 2020 Bibliography Birmingham City Council/Yale University Press (2009) Matthew Boulton: Selling What All The World Desires, Ed. Shena Mason Orwell, George (1957) Inside The Whale and Other Essays, Penguin Books Powell, Liane (2020) Interview with the author, Adrian Johnson (26 Aug 2020) Witts, Brian (2008) http://www.mining-memorabilia.co.uk/MembersPublications.htm#Enamel%20Badges%20of%20the%20N.U.M
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