Follow the Banner

In Northumberland, only 20 miners' banners are known to have survived pit closures and most are held at Woodhorn Colliery Museum in Ashington, with a few others housed in local schools and Welfare Institutes. This book draws this scattered collection together in one volume. The book evokes the Northumberland Miners' Picnic, when these banners were annually flown. Later chapters discuss the collection in relation to a tradition which spans 170 years and is shared by trade unionists across the country. The second half of the book is dedicated to a catalogue of banners. Their imagery, slogans and history are analyzed, drawing on an oral testimony and handwritten pages of branch minute books. Each banner is illustrated.