One Year! Photographs from the Miners' Strike 1984-1985
Supported by Martin Parr Foundation
2025
ONE YEAR! Photographs from the miners’ strike 1984–85 is a powerful touring exhibition curated by Isaac Blease and drawn from the Martin Parr Foundation Collection. The exhibition marked the 40th anniversary of the year-long industrial action that defined a generation. This year, it is presented to coincide with the reopening of our newly refurbished building and offers a powerful complement to our major exhibition, Chris Killip: Askam-in-Furness.
This exhibition looks at the vital role photographs played during the year-long struggle against pit closures, including many materials drawn from the Martin Parr Foundation collection. The miners’ strike was one of Britain’s longest and most bitter industrial disputes, the repercussions of which continue to be felt throughout the country today.
The photographs show some familiar imagery from the strike—the lines of police and violence—but also depict the community support and the hours of waiting on both sides of the dispute. Photography was used to both sway public opinion and to document this important period in British history.
Ephemera relating to the strike—including posters, vinyl records, plates, badges and publications— will be placed in dialogue with work by photographers who documented the events in 1984-85. Collectively, the materials demonstrate the power and the contradictions inherent in using photography as a tool of resistance. The exhibition will include photographs by Brenda Prince, John Sturrock, John Harris, Jenny Matthews, Howard Sooley, Roger Tiley, Imogen Young and Chris Killip, alongside images from photo albums compiled by Philip Winnard who was himself a striking miner. These works will be alongside archival press prints also from the Martin Parr Foundation collection and vernacular images taken by Swansea police on a trip to a picket line in Derbyshire, on loan from the National Museum Wales.
Depicted throughout are not only the infamous clashes between police and flying pickets, but also the solidarity and strength of striking communities — including the vital contributions of women-led support groups like Women Against Pit Closures. The exhibition features the acclaimed work of working class Brenda Prince, who documented the crucial role women played during the Strike — a perspective that strongly resonates with our organisation’s commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices.
Location:
Signal Film & Media
Cooke’s Studios
102-104 Abbey Road
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria
LA14 5QR
Exhibition Times:
Friday 19th September – Saturday 25th October | Tue – Sat | 10am – 5pm
Launch Event:
Thursday 18th September | 6pm
‘For those who have lived through this strike, its enormity cannot be underestimated. We have brought together some of the best-known photographs— including John Harris’s image of a policeman with a truncheon held from a horse waving at a cowering woman and John Sturrock’s photograph of the confrontation between mass pickets and police lines at Bilston Glen—to rarely seen snapshots taken by Philip Winnard a striking miner himself.’
– Martin Parr
‘The exhibition is an attempt to commemorate and reflect on the miners’ strike of 1984-85, a seismic, yet often overlooked event in the recent history of Britain.
By focusing on the complex role photographs played during the year-long struggle we hope for the show to transcend the purely historical or nostalgic, and take the visitor on a journey through a series of timeless images that show the resilience, camaraderie and violence of the strike, to reconnect and consider it again in relation to the present.
The ephemera materials show the urgent use of images and the creativity that was deployed in support of the striking miners.
Together, the works tell a story of the battle against Margaret Thatcher and the National Coal Board’s pit closures, but what ultimately shines through is the unity and imagination of people coming together in defence of their communities and the basic rights to work and to survive.’
– Isaac Blease, Exhibition Curator
‘ONE YEAR! Photographs from the Miners’ Strike 1984–85’ is presented alongside Chris Killip ‘Askam-in-Furness’. These two exhibitions launch the re-opening of our newly redeveloped building, Cooke’s Studios. The project is a £1.4 million capital refurbishment, funded by ACE and the UK Government Community Ownership Fund.
One Week!
A Signal Project
2025
This project focuses on the link between Shirebrook and Barrow-in-Furness, showing how the national story of the miners’ strike was also a deeply local story of solidarity between communities. Through research and conversations with local people, it shines a light on shared histories and the connections that continue to shape our community.
As the strike continued through 1984 and miners fought against Thatcher’s pit closures, they also watched as their communities disintegrated around them. Union pay began to run out and they struggled to pay for food and essentials for their families.
Many towns and communities not directly involved stepped up to support where they could. Help and empathy was given through campaigns, fundraising, food parcels and messages of solidarity.
Barrow-in-Furness Labour party played their part in supporting the miners’ cause. As a result, members formed friendships with families from Shirebrook, Derbyshire, a community significantly affected and deeply divided by the strikes.
Instigated by Les Burns, a group of Shirebrook miners’ families were invited to spend a week in Barrow and the Lake District to give much needed recuperation and a break from the struggles at home. Plans were made, trips were organised, accommodation was found – all the funds were raised through donations.
One Week in 1984 two communities 200 miles apart were brought together, led by empathy, solidarity and friendship showing that we can sometimes find a way to shine a light during the darkest of moments.
‘There is no such thing as being neutral: we must either help or hinder’
Robert Treswell
Listen to more extracts from this story below:
Coinciding with ONE YEAR! Photographs from the miners’ strike 1984–85, is a display of photos of the family’s visits in the summer of 1984 and a Shirebrook Miners Lamp given to the Barrow Labour Party.
Many thanks to Anne Burns, Trina Robson, Alec Proffitt & Alex Taylor for their generous contribution.