Old Hill Miners' Association

The Old Hill and Highley District Miners', Enginemen's and Surfacemen's Association, usually known as the Old Hill Miners' Association, was a trade union representing mineworkers in the Old Hill district of the West Midlands, in England.

Old Hill was the last area of the South Staffordshire coalfield to be developed, and the local mining industry was growing when the miners' union was established, in 1870. It soon became known for its militant approach, often striking in order to raise wages or improve working conditions. Unlike other local unions, it refused to take part in the South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire Miners' Wages Board, which took a sliding scale approach to wage - they would automatically rise and fall with the price of coal. This approach was vindicated in 1884, when the board reduced wages, but miners came out on strike, with the backing of the Old Hill union, but the opposition of other local unions. As a result, the strike was lost, and in search of solidarity from workers in other industries, the union affiliated to the Midland Counties Trades Federation (MCTF).

The MCTF was focused on the metal trades, and so the Old Hill Miners' Association switched to the Midland Counties Miners' Federation when that was formed, in 1886. Unlike the other local miners' unions, it participated enthusiastically in the federation. It briefly left after the federation affiliated to the Miners' Federation of Great Britain in 1889, but soon rejoined. As a result, when all the other local unions merged into the West Bromwich Miners' Association, Old Hill remained independent. Despite this, it was always a small union; by 1910, it had 1,116 members.

In 1944, the National Union of Mineworkers was established, and the union became the Highley District of its Midlands Area. A couple of years later, it merged into the South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire District.

General Secretaries

William Breakwell

1883: Benjamin Winwood

1912: Samuel Edwards

References

^ Eric Taylor, "Winwood, Benjamin", Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol.II, pp.409–413
Gregory, Roy (1968). The Miners and British Politics 1906-1914. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 168.
National Union of Mineworkers, "Annual Conference 1946: Report of the National Executive Committee", p.98

v t e Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)
Presidents	1889 Pickard 1904 En. Edwards 1912 Smillie 1922 Smith 1929 Richards 1931 Eb. Edwards 1932 Lee 1934 J. Jones 1939 Lawther 1954 E. Jones 1960 Machen 1960 Ford 1971 Gormley 1982 Scargill 2002 Lavery 2012 Wilson
Vice-Presidents	1889 Woods 1909 Smillie 1912 Harvey 1914 House 1917 Smith 1922 Walsh 1924 Richards 1929 Eb. Edwards 1931 Lee 1932 J. Jones 1933 Davies 1934 Lawther 1939 Bowman 1950 E. Jones 1954 T. Jones 1961 Collindridge 1963 Bullough 1969 Schofield 1973 McGahey 1987 Thompson 1989 Vacant 1992 Cave 2002 Stanley 2010 Wilson 2012 Thomas
General Secretaries	1889 Ashton 1919 Hodges 1924 Cook 1932 Eb. Edwards 1946 Horner 1959 Paynter 1968 Daly 1984 Heathfield 1992 Scargill 1992 Vacant? 2002 Kemp 2007 Kitchen
Treasurers	1889 En. Edwards 1904 Abraham 1918 Robson 1921 Richardson
Affiliates and areas	Bristol Cleveland Cokemen Colliery Officials and Staffs Cumberland Derbyshire Durham Forest of Dean Kent Lancashire and Cheshire Leicestershire Midland Counties (Cannock Chase North Staffordshire Old Hill Pelsall Shropshire Warwickshire West Bromwich) Northumberland North Wales Nottinghamshire Scotland (Ayrshire Fife and Kinross Lanarkshire Mid and East Lothian Mid and West Lothian Stirling) Somerset South Derbyshire South Wales Yorkshire
Strikes	1893 1912 1926 1969 1972 1974 1984–1985

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