Cultural highlights 2025: Streic! 40 years on, with a message for Wales today

Ella Groves

Born in 2003, I have no memories of the mines’ strike – or of mining in Wales at all.

The last pit in Wales closed when I was just 4 years old and much more concerned with Barbies than the loss of one of Wales’ biggest, most culturally significant industries.

The extent of my experience with mining is limited to school trips to Big Pit, Blaenafon, being huddled into a mine shaft lift with my friends, wearing a hard hat that ruined my hair – and mostly looking forward to the picnic we’d been promised afterwards.

The ‘Streic!’ exhibit, however, connected with me in a way I did not expect.

Opening in October 2024 and running until April 2025, the ‘Streic! 84-85 Strike!’ exhibition at the National Museum Cardiff is one of undeniable importance.

It has been over 40 years since 22,000 Welsh miners walked out of pits across Wales in protest of the National Coal Board’s plans to close twenty mines across the UK, sparking a seismic shift in the cultural, social, and political landscape of Wales.

‘From Hope to Loss’

Moving from a summer of hope to a winter of violence and loss, the exhibit walked visitors through a year that changed Wales forever.

Curated by Ceri Thompson, a miner himself during the strikes, the exhibit housed an array of photos, placards and banners from protests, fundraising memorabilia, and the personal stories of the men, women, and children whose lives were irrevocably changed by the strike.

The exhibit began with ‘Setting the Scene’ – a look into the historical importance of coal to Wales, the industry that founded so many towns and villages across the country.

In 1921, 230,000 men in Wales were employed in the coal industry.

By 1984 this had dropped to just over 20,000, and by the end of the decade there were only 3,700 miners left in Wales.

Watching the mining industry decline and deteriorate as you moved through the exhibit gave a real sense of the loss felt by these communities across Wales.

‘Crossing the picket line’

There is a point in the exhibition where the visitor is faced with a choice – to proceed with the strike or to walk with the police and go to work.

The division of the exhibit down the picket line allowed for visitors to get a sense of the choices that faced the miners day after day – the struggle between their loyalty to the union and the strike and their desire to see their families warm and fed.

As the strike worsened, so did the pressures on the miners, each lacking a desperately needed income, but the communities rallied together.

‘Community’

At the centre of these communities, although they are so often overlooked, were women.

Although initially prevented from attending the picket lines at some NUM lodges, women were not deterred altogether, with support groups such as Women Against Pit Closures becoming activists in the local community and joining the miners on the picket line.

Fundraising, food centres, soup kitchens, jumble sales, and more were all organised and run by women to keep the community going.

‘Loss’

The strike ultimately ended in defeat. The miners lost, the pits were closed, and communities were changed beyond recognition.

But something else prospered from the strikes – solidarity.

Some say coal is at the heart of Wales, and whilst this is perhaps true, I think it is community that is the heart of Wales.

The 84-85 Miners’ Strike was an unprecedented demonstration of solidarity and community – one perhaps the Wales of today could take note of.