Cramlington strike banner takes centre stage
Centenary celebration as 1926 General Strike banner is back in circulation. Tony Henderson reports
The team behind the hit play The Cramlington Train Wreckers set in the 1926 General Strike has been gifted a homemade banner from those turbulent times.
The banner, created by members of Shankhouse Women’s Section of Cramlington Labour Party in 1926, will take pride of place among an impressive array of strike armbands, plaques, medals and other artefacts.
The front of the banner calls for “victory” and on the back rallies workers of the world to unite.
The standard dates from the time of a notorious incident when eight Cramlington miners were sentenced to a total of 48 years’ imprisonment for the inadvertent derailment of a train on the mainline, where Cramlington Learning Village is now located.
Jane Harker of Wisecrack Productions, producers of the plays The Cramlington Train Wreckers, Wor Bella, Hadaway Harry and Carrying David, said: “The incident happened on May 10, 1926, day seven of the strike.
“The miners uncoupled a rail, intending to hold up a train rumoured to be carrying blackleg coal. Unfortunately, a passenger train, the Flying Scotsman, came along and was inadvertently derailed with 281 people on board.
“No-one died in the incident and the only injury was minor, to a man’s foot. The eight Northumberland miners served their time in Maidstone, Kent - 330 miles away from their families.
“But due to pressure from the labour and trade union movement, the Cramlington lads only served half of their harsh sentences, returning home as heroes.
“The Cramlington Labour Party women played a tremendous role in raising money to help pay for the families to visit their loved ones in Maidstone prison where visitors were allowed a one-hour visit a year.
“The women organised rabbit pie evenings.”
Cramlington historian and writer Brian Godfrey, 75, bought the banner 20 years ago.
He said: “It was home-made, from curtains, by members of the Hamilton family from Shankhouse and was first used in a Cramlington procession supporting the 1926 General Strike. People just wanted to show their solidarity and used their initiative.
“The banner had remained in the Hamilton family loft since the 1920s. It was probably used in the huge processions to greet the released ‘wreckers’. When I heard about the banner I bought it for £100.
“For the past two decades it hung in my house and was brought out on occasions. Now I feel it has to be handed down and I’ve given it to Wisecrack Productions who are doing excellent work alongside Cramlington Town Council preserving the town’s brilliant heritage.”
Jane Harker said: “The banner is an incredible historical artefact that will be proudly displayed at all of our General Strike centenary events and, like our other artefacts, will be donated to Woodhorn Museum so that more people can learn about the sacrifices of these brilliant, tenacious working class Cramlington women and men.”
Wisecrack Productions will present Centenary, a show comprising songs, stand-up comedy and comedy sketches, at Glasshouse (formerly The Sage) in Gateshead on Monday, May 4 - the first full day of the 1926 General Strike.
The Cramlington Train Wreckers, by South Shields writer Ed Waugh, is visiting Derry Playhouse (July 8) and Belfast Waterfront Hall (July 9) before transferring to Newcastle Theatre Royal on Sunday, July 12.
For more information about the Cramlington Train Wreckers visit www.cramlingtontrainwreckers.co.uk