South Wales Coal Miners and Industrial Change, c. 1920-1970

Abstract This thesis explores miners’ experiences of work and industrial change in the South Wales coalfield, c.1920-1970. At the beginning of this period, coal was mined by hand, collieries were in private hands, and the relationship between colliery management and the miners’ union was tense and combative. The coal industry dominated the South Wales economy, and there were few opportunities for employment in other industries. By 1970, very little remained the same. The industry was transformed by nationalisation, technological change, and improvements in industrial relations. These developments were set against coal’s shrinking position within the energy market, colliery closures and the diversification of the regional economy. Whilst the industry’s transformation has been well-traced by labour, economic and political historians, little is known about men’s experiences of these changes. Scholarship providing a gender-based analysis of the coalfield has tended to focus on men’s experiences of being out-of-work, and not on the relationship between masculinity and work itself. This thesis uses the published autobiographies and pre-existing oral testimonies of South Wales miners to explore how their experiences of industrial change affected their perceptions of their masculinity and working identity. I also draw on a variety of other source materials – including union publications, recruitment advertisements, and government reports – to supplement and contextualise miners’ personal testimonies. This thesis argues that industrial change disrupted miners’ perceptions of their masculinity and working identity. It finds that geography and the lifecycle were factors that mediated both miners’ experiences of industrial change and their perceptions of their own identity. This thesis pushes beyond a binary understanding of work as something men either had access to or not. In doing so, it sheds new light on the significance of work as a site of identity formation and serves to complicate our understanding of working-class masculinities.